[Edaily Reporter Kim Hyun-ah ] “Subnautica 2” by KRAFTON(259960), which has emerged as a hit deep-sea survival game, is significantly enhancing its co-op play features with its second update.

For the first time in the series, the game supports multiplayer for up to four players, expanding what was once a solo deep-sea exploration experience into a “survival experience together.” This strategy aims to build on the game’s success—which sold 2 million copies and reached 400,000 concurrent players on Steam just one day after its Early Access launch—by adding cooperative gameplay content.

KRAFTON(259960)Creative studio Unknown Worlds announced that it is rolling out the second Early Access update for the open-world survival crafting game “Subnautica 2.” This update focuses on enhancing communication and cooperation among players.

The most notable change is “proximity voice chat.” By applying distance-based spatial audio, the voices of nearby teammates are louder, while those farther away are softer. This allows players scattered across the deep sea to intuitively gauge their teammates’ locations and distances through voice chat.

A “revival system” for rescuing teammates in distress has also been introduced. Even if a player’s health is completely depleted, they do not die immediately but instead fall unconscious; if a teammate revives them within a time limit, they can continue their exploration. This adds a cooperative element—the need to save teammates—to the tension of surviving alone.

Emotion expression features have been added to allow players to communicate without using voice chat, and a function to directly access a teammate’s inventory to transfer resources has also been introduced. The throwable tag and signal systems for sharing locations have been improved, and base-building convenience has been enhanced.

Subnautica 2 is an open-world survival crafting game set in the deep seas of a new alien planet. It combines an underwater ecosystem powered by Unreal Engine 5, massive deep-sea creatures, and exploration and crafting elements, while allowing players to explore even deeper into the ocean through a genetic modification system.

Protecting the game’s oceans in real life… $100

,000

for ocean cleanup

Along with this update, Unknown Worlds is donating

$100

,000 to “The Ocean Cleanup,” a nonprofit organization

dedicated to ocean

cleanup.

The Ocean Cleanup is a nonprofit organization that develops technologies to remove marine plastic pollution and deploys them in oceans around the world. Unknown Worlds has continued its marine conservation efforts, including donating a portion of the sales proceeds from the original “Subnautica” to the organization on World Environment Day in 2019.

Fernando Melo, Executive Producer at Unknown Worlds, said, “Subnautica is a game that began with a love for the ocean,” adding, “It is meaningful to be able to continue the marine conservation efforts we’ve maintained since the original game through this donation.”

Lee Jin-hyung, Head of Department at KRAFTON, said, “Subnautica 2 is expanding beyond solo survival to an experience of exploring together,” adding, “We will continue to refine the cooperative play experience by incorporating user feedback during the Early Access period.”

KRAFTON plans to enhance the game’s polish during the Early Access phase by strengthening cooperative play—where players communicate with teammates and rescue one another in moments of crisis—while maintaining the isolation and terror inherent in deep-sea survival.