Yep, we can now say ‘Subnautica 3 confirmed’ – unless you’re really pedantic, in which case we must say ‘the third entry in the Subnautica series is confirmed’. Either way, developer Unknown Worlds has announced that the “next game in the Subnautica universe” is in development, alongside a job listing which reveals a few things about the direction of the upcoming game.
The devs are looking for a senior narrative designer (via our friends at The Loadout) who will “collaborate closely with the team to tell compelling, dramatic stories in the context of the game experience, while also defining the history and lore of a new science fiction world and its alien inhabitants. This person has a unique opportunity to join the team early in development and help establish the narrative direction for a beloved franchise.”
Subnautica has always had an unusual emphasis on narrative for a survival game, and it looks like that won’t be changing with the next series entry. The listing pushes for someone familiar with “open-world games and the process of developing narrative in the context of an open-ended, player-driven experience,” and who has “experience working on live projects or episodic content”.
Unknown Worlds told us way back in early 2021 that the studio was interested in making a sequel larger than Below Zero, and that they’d likely “rethink” multiplayer on such a project. More recently, the devs announced an original “genre-defining game” that’s set to enter early access sometime this year.
Whatever shape Subnautica 3 ends up taking, the job listing makes clear that it’s very early in development, so expect a long wait before more info comes along.
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