Unknown Worlds, the creator of the Subnautica franchise, will unveil its new IP in full at this year's Gamescom. It'll be a sci-fi property, and we won't just be seeing a pre-rendered trailer, with plenty of gameplay on the slate for this month's gaming extravaganza.
What do we know about the new Unknown Worlds IP?
According to a tweet by gaming journalist Geoff Keighley, Unknown Worlds is planning a big reveal for its new IP at the Gamescom event, which will be held later this month. Keighley says the studio's game director Charlie Cleveland will announce the new IP and show "lots of gameplay" for it as well, so if you were worried it'd just be a non-reveal full of cinematics, it looks like you needn't worry. You might want to do yourself a favor and avoid clicking the Subnautica Twitter account Keighley links in his tweet, though, as it's...decidedly not a Subnautica account.
Since Keighley says this is a new IP, it's most likely the mysterious Project M, which is slated to enter Early Access sometime this year. We don't know a whole lot about the game yet, unfortunately, just that it's a turn-based strategy game and it definitely isn't an official release for the popular Super Smash Bros mod of the same name. We'll just have to wait until August 23rd, when Unknown Worlds plans to officially unveil this new IP, to learn more about it.
What's next for the Subnautica series?
In case you're worried that Unknown Worlds branching out into new properties means the end of Subnautica, worry not. The developers have plans to continue updates for both games in the series, although the way in which those updates are created and released might be a little different in the future. We also know that there's definitely another Subnautica game in the works, and this one could take place on an entirely different planet, so it could finally be time to wave goodbye to 4546B and its host of terrifyingly violent leviathan-class creatures.
Hopefully, we learn more about what's in store for the Subnautica franchise in the near future. In the meantime, you can grab both Subnautica and its sequel, Subnautica: Below Zero, right now across all major platforms. It's definitely worth doing so, especially if you're into survival games with more foregrounded narrative elements than the genre usually sports.