The early access launch of Subnautica 2 appears to be the latest game hit by pre-release leaks in a matter of days, after players managed to access both LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight and Forza Horizon 6 before their official launch dates.
Aquatic survival adventure Subnautica 2 is meant to arrive in early access for Xbox Series X/S and PC this Thursday, May 14. But over on reddit, what appears to be screenshots and a clip of PC gameplay have just been posted.
Fans say that an unknown person apparently streamed the game last night, after somehow obtaining a working copy. It’s an odd situation, so soon after confusion over exactly how Forza Horizon 6 leaked, and separately, a similarly bizarre situation where one player was able to start playing their pre-loaded copy of LEGO Batman on Xbox.
What looks to be leaked lameplay of Subnautica 2 shows a quick walkthrough of an early section, and then the user scrolling through the game’s visual menu, where PC options to alter its windowed settings and visual upscaling method can be seen.
IGN has contacted Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton for comment.
Yesterday, Forza Horizon 6 developer Playground Games issued a dramatic warning to anyone found playing the game’s leaked build, who it said risked incurring “franchise-wide and hardware bans”. Earlier today, the studio followed through with its threat with at least one player, who now has a hardware ban until the year 10,000.
Exactly how that leak occured remains something of a mystery, despite early speculation that the game had somehow been leaked through Steam itself, perhaps via an unlocked version of the game pushed live in error by Microsoft. For its part, SteamDB itself has issued a statement distancing itself from the leak, suggesting someone with early access to the build was responsible. Neither Playground Games nor Microsoft have explained what actually happened here.
As for LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, a reddit user posted a series of screenshots showing they were now somehow able to play the game on their Xbox after redeeming a digital download code purchased at Walmart. In a lengthy reddit thread, users speculated that the digital code used to obtain the game had been incorrectly assigned to download the full, 45.2GB launch version of the game rather than a smaller 340MB pre-order file — something that now appears to have been patched.
If you don’t already have a Subnautica 2 pre-order in hand, then you should know the game is an open-water survival adventure from the creators of the original Subnautica series, wherein you can play alone or with friends and explore alluring biomes and discover fascinating creatures, crafting vehicles, tools, and bases to help survive a mysterious alien world. Its development is especially notable for the painfully public falling out between developer Unknown Worlds and publisher Krafton — something that seems to be water under the bridge, for now.
Subnautica 2 is available to preorder and preload right now on Steam and Xbox Series X and S. It’s also available to pre-purchase on Epic Games Store. It’s set to launch straight into Game Pass as one of the headline May titles. There’s no word yet on a PS5 or Nintendo Switch 2 version. IGN also has a full guide to when Subnautica 2 unlocks in your timezone.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
