Subnautica 2's Steam page no longer lists Krafton as publisher, and some weird tags have been removed

The Subnautica 2 drama has, perhaps, been one of the most high-profile cases in a long time. After publisher Krafton confirmed that it was moving towards an AI-first development approach, we saw the surprise replacement of  key members of the Unknown Worlds staff team, including co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, as well as president Ted Gill. Krafton claimed that "the former leadership abandoned the responsibilities entrusted to them," claiming that Cleveland was distracted by a "personal film project" and that "the absence of core leadership resulted in repeated confusion in direction and significant delays in the overall project schedule."

As you can imagine, this quickly turned into a legal minefield, with the three former execs disputing Krafton's claims. But, midway through March, it was officially ruled that Krafton had to reinstate Gill, give him complete control over Subnautica 2's early access launch, and full access to the survival game's Steam backend.

Krafton "breached the EPA by terminating the Key Employees without valid Cause and by improperly seizing operational control of Unknown Worlds," the official document reads. As a result, "Krafton is enjoined from using the Unknown Worlds Board, or any other corporate lever, to circumvent Section 2.7(f) or impede Gill's decision-making authority over the early access launch of Subnautica 2. Krafton must also immediately restore to Gill all access necessary to effectuate that authority, including over the Steam publishing platform."

Now, Krafton does not appear as publisher on Subnautica 2's Steam page - looking at Wayback Machine, this changed sometime between Saturday April 4, and today, Tuesday April 14. It's unclear what exactly this means (Krafton still features on the Subnautica 2 website), but is perhaps reflective of the fact that Unknown Worlds has full control over the game's upcoming launch.

Looking at the game's Steam backend, however, raises a few more questions. Per SteamDB, there have been myriad changes to the game over the past few hours, with the most significant being the removal of the, erm, 'hentai' tag, which has been replaced with 'choices matter' - slightly different genres there. This has been changed at least four times since Friday, April 10.

Now this really could be anything - SteamDB, and Valve by proxy, work in mysterious ways. A quick glance at both the current and April 4 Steam pages shows no sign of the tag, and while it's part of a larger slate of changes to the Steam page's backend, I don't think Subnautica 2 has suddenly become a hentai game - sorry to disappoint.

But what does all of this mean? Well, it's unclear. It's obvious there's no love lost between Krafton and Unknown Worlds, so the pair may have chosen to simply go their separate ways. The Subnautica 2 release date, however, is currently slated for May 2026, which is less than a month away, so it'd certainly be interesting timing.

I've reached out to Krafton and Unknown Worlds for comment, and will update this article if I receive a response.