In February, Krafton announced that Subnautica studio Unknown Worlds, which it had acquired in October 2021, was working on a new project that was not Subnautica 3. Instead, it’s a “turn-based strategy game (opens in new tab) set in a sci-fi world”—quite a departure from the first-person survival games that put Unknown Worlds on the map.
Later this month at Gamescom, we’ll finally get a look at what it’s all about: Unknown Worlds co-founder Charlie Cleveland will formally unveil the new game during the Opening Night Live showcase. The presence of Unknown Worlds’ new thing was initially revealed on Twitter by Master of All Gaming Ceremonies Geoff Keighley, but the tweet contained an extremely unfortunate spelling error (opens in new tab) that led to a completely different (and very not safe-for-work) Twitter account.
Fortunately, Krafton also confirmed the Gamescom appearance of Unknown Worlds in a separate statement of its own, saying that Charlie Cleveland, the co-founder and game director at Unknown Worlds, “will officially reveal a new IP set in a sci-fi world that features imaginative turn-based gameplay.”
Keighley tried again a little while later, and this time he stuck the landing:
At @gamescom Opening Night Live on August 23, are excited to reveal the next game from @unknownworlds the creators of @SubnauticaThis is a brand new sci-fi IP, and we’ll show you lots of gameplay too!Tune in live on August 23 at 8pm CEST / 2p ET / 11a PT for the announcement. pic.twitter.com/uxMAcGR5hJAugust 9, 2022
Keighley’s tweet is more interesting than the official announcement because aside from a title reveal, it also promises to show off some gameplay. That’s much more important: The Subnautica games are excellent (I haven’t played the sequel (opens in new tab) but the original is brilliant (opens in new tab)), but a turn-based sci-fi strategy game is a dramatic departure from what Unknown Worlds has done before and I (along with plenty of other fans, I’m sure) am really curious to see how the studio approaches it.
Optimistically, the presence of gameplay at Gamescom could also mean that we’ll get a release date too: When the new game was announced, Krafton said it expected an early access launch to happen later in 2022.