Subnautica 2 was one of a number of recent high-profile games to suddenly leak days ahead of launch. But as far as I can tell, none of the players of those other games contacted the developers for technical support. But that’s seemingly what one early player of Steam’s new hit survival game attempted.
Developer Unknown Worlds confirmed early this week that Subnautica 2 had somehow made it into the wild ahead of its May 14 Early Access launch, but cautioned fans desperate to go hands-on with the new underwater adventure that the leaked build was incomplete and not reflective of the final version going live on Steam for $30. Still, as spotted by RespawnFirst, that didn’t seem to stop at least one player from not just downloading the illicit copy but then contacting the developers directly about issues they were having trying to play it.
“What exe are you running?” Anthony, who is seemingly lead designer Anthony Gallegos, wrote in Discord in response to a now-deleted message asking for PC support. Other players on the server immediately chimed in. “Why do people keep incriminating themselves lmaoo,” one wrote. “Ban them,” suggested another. “Anthony are you HELPING them??! what is going on right now,” wrote a third.
This whole conversation took place on May 13, mind you, a day before the game was actually available to buy. It’s unclear if the player in question was just trolling or was just that stupid.
“It took some doing, but this guy self-reported,” Anthony later wrote. “Thanks for pirating a game that I’ve spent years working on. I’m disappointed that you’d do that when it’s kind of how we make our living. I hope you rethink your life choices.”
While it’s unclear if Subnautica 2 pirates have relented or are still busy cleaning malware off their computers, the leak didn’t seem to affect the game’s long-awaited launch. It’s already sold over 2 million copies in its first day, rocketing up the Steam charts and all but ensuring a massive payday for Unknown Worlds’ cofounders, or at least another round of messy litigation to figure that out.