>>715398891
>First time I've heard of that since they started it before the buyout.
It's true that the concept for Moonbreakers was around since 2017, but the actual development did only start after the buyout.
As for Krafton forcing them... I'm going to be frank - there is a lot of chatter about this but very little solid evidence as far as I can tell.
The popular theory I've seen circulating among the old Subnautica fanbase is that Krafton did ask UW to first work on something smaller and more importantly, heavily multiplayer focused before letting them pick up the Subnautica 2 first. Word was that Krafton was always after the Subnautica IP, and was kinda forced to buyout UW with it, since Cleveland and co. would only agree with that being a package deal, which is understandable. I was dubious about these claims that seeing what happened recently, it does kinda seem to fit.
Anyway, the core idea of Krafton's vision for subnautica was always pushing towards multiplay, and that was something UW actually haven't touched for more than a decade. So they wanted to see if UW can actually handle that. UW figured out their old Moonbreaker concept would be ideal for that demonstration and probably were pretty happy they could take a break from Subnautica as well, so a deal was made. UW would do their little turnbased online game to show they have the skills, and Krafton would not forcefully yank the IP from them.
This, again, all comes from chatter among people from the old Subnautica community, and I don't have a single actual link confirming any of it, so... keep that in mind. It makes sense but that does not mean it's true.
