Before Subnautica 2 claimed its early access release date of May 14, that day actually belonged to another open-world survival game with over a million Steam wishlists that's had to quickly swim away as if it's just caught the attention of a hungry sea beast.
Subnautica 2 has just pulled a minor Hollow Knight Silksong in the sense that it's caused at least one other game in its genre to move the heck out of its way. The indie developer behind Outbound, a co-op game about sustainably living out of a camper van that unfolds into a house, today announced that it's adjusting its release plans.
"The highly anticipated title Subnautica 2 just revealed their release date – which falls exactly on our planned release date May 14th," developer Square Glade Games writes in a new blog post. "Even though we are very hyped for their game and big fans of the franchise, we think that it is best to not compete with such an highly anticipated title on that day.
"We need to dodge the Leviathan, which means that you can start your road trip earlier," it continues. Outbound is now launching on Steam and Xbox May 11 to avoid Subnautica 2 on those same platforms. The indie game's PS5 and Nintendo Switch versions are staying in place for May 14, though, since the underwater heavyweight can't come to those platforms until it reaches 1.0.
"Please note that this change means, that the demo will go offline on May 8th," the dev adds.
Outbound wouldn't normally have to worry about competition since it's, you know, the 13th most-wishlisted game on the entirety of Steam with over a million people waiting for the title. But considering the fact that it's going up against the platform's top dog – Subnautica 2 has been Steam's most-wishlisted game for months – the release date shift certainly makes sense. Plus, after Outbound was previously delayed from its previous April 23 launch, it's nice to see it arriving slightly sooner than we expected on some platforms.
