Subnautica 2 Gets Experimental Branch To Test New Updates Before Launch

Subnautica 2 launched to massive success in mid-May, quickly racking up hundreds of thousands of concurrent players on Steam. Now, three months after launch, Unknown Worlds has announced a new experimental build for the Early Access game, much like it had with the original Subnautica and Below Zero later. The studio says that the experimental branch is part of its dedication to a transparent development process for Subnautica 2.

The experimental build is optionally available on both Steam and Xbox and will allow players to try out upcoming in-game content before it lands in the mainline build of the game. The goal of the experimental build is to crowdsource issues and bugs before new features, changes, and mechanics hit the mainline version of the game, and players will be able to freely switch between builds without affecting their main savegame. At the time of writing, the main focus is on major updates, meaning experimental build players will receive major updates "shortly before" the main branch, but the game studio may also test smaller patches in the experimental branch.