NS3?

[u/dragonsowl]

The studio found amazing success with the subnautica franchise.

Is there any chance that unknown worlds will go back to their roots?

It was an amazing game and i think that their attempt at making it an esport will work better this time around.

What do you all think?

I remember that there was drama with their parent company or publisher over a payout that destroyed their leadership. Was that resolved in unknown worlds favor or was it a nail in a coffin?

[u/fbp]

Pretty sure that Charlie Cleveland(Flayra) has said he would not be interested in doing another violent video game.

[u/Farles → u/fbp]

Correct, after the Christchurch massacre he disavowed NS and swore no more guns in his games.

[u/Necro_Zaku → u/Farles]

I wouldn't say he disavowed NS or said no more guns in any game. One of their games "Moonbreaker" technically has guns and his PFP is still an Onos.

I think the point was that Subnautica specifically shows violence isn't always the answer towards dealing with your environment.

Here's the steam comment where he talks about it

https://steamcommunity.com/app/264710/discussions/0/523897653306355954/?ctp=9#c371918937268702725

Regardless I do doubt there will be an NS3 ever sadly :(

[u/Grockr → u/Necro_Zaku]

Always liked this about Subnautica. Makes it feel more like a science expedition when you dont go guns blazing on local wildlife.

[u/Koniax → u/Farles]

What a bitch, wish I could go back in time to playing co_faceoff against him in NS 1 and tell him that

[u/Devour_My_Soul → u/fbp]

Who cares. He has nothing to do with it anymore. He AI generates christmas comedy movies now.

[u/fbp → u/Devour_My_Soul]

Damn, are you always the most pleasant person at a funeral?

[u/Devour_My_Soul → u/fbp]

I am sorry, what exactly did offend you? The fact Cleveland AI generates christmas comedy movies now or the fact he is not part of the studio anymore?

But you should try to not project your frustration onto other people. I just stated the facts.

[u/fbp → u/Devour_My_Soul]

Your comment had nothing to do with the topic. Flayra was the lead developer of natural selection. I am not sure if he still owns any IP rights. Likely not.

He spent over a decade working on NS1 and NS2. I respect that. Especially since it was his side hustle. Much respect.

Whatever he does that makes him happy. If that's making a movie good for him.

Alas if subnauticas company owns the natural selection IP. I don't forsee anything coming from them for a very niche genre. It's like EA buying maxis or Westwood studios.

Now this does not stop anyone else from developing a spiritual successor or anything like this. The metroidvania genre and roguelike and soulslikes have words to say about that.

You're just a rude person.

I like to build people up. If Flayra doesn't want anything to do with an NS3, that's fine, but the entire team of volunteers that took over didn't take it further (I mean as developing a third game, I appreciate what they did for NS2) .

[u/MetalGearXerox → u/fbp]

That's a lot of yap for basically crying over nothing.

[u/otw → u/fbp]

He's also making an spiritual successor to Elf or something using AI. He seems like he's kind of gone off the deep end to be honest.

[u/ActualNin → u/fbp]

Charlie has posted about future NS games after that https://x.com/Flayra/status/1752781201176477721

[u/otw]

Honestly I think that era of gaming is just over sadly. The multiplayer gaming environment of the late 2000s and early 2010s was pretty unique and I don't think it will ever be recreated. Developers aren't really experimenting with multiplayer games like they used to and gamers aren't willing to play them either. There's also just maybe too many games or other things grabbing people's attention cause when something interesting does come out, there's just not enough people playing it to stay alive.

I used to make multiplayer games and mods like these in the early 2010s and you could make almost anything and have an active community play it for a year or two. Now games with huge marketing budgets and big names will be dead after a couple weeks.

I think a lot of this stuff sadly is moving to platforms like Roblox and Minecraft and stuff. I think kids don't really have computers anymore, they'd rather play a new Roblox game on their tablet or something. The older people who are still on their computers have jobs and kids now and can't keep the servers active enough.

There's been a few attempts at revivals and sequels to old MP games I used to play and, while I think the community thinks they want that, they don't really show up to actually play it. I think NS3 would be pretty similar. Probably it'd come out, have a few thousand people play it for a month or two, people would complain about it and go back to NS2 and NS3 would die.

[u/fatzombie88 → u/otw]

So you're saying NS3 should be released in Roblox.

[u/otw → u/fatzombie88]

I mean honestly it probably would do better there lol a lot of my old studios became Roblox developers and the discoverability and population is pretty good. Roblox Rivals I think surpasses Dota 2 at one point for concurrent players.

The Roblox engine has a lot of limitations so you couldn't make something one to one to NS2/NS3 but you could make something pretty close and have a basically guaranteed user base. But I doubt many NS2 players would bother to download Roblox to play it lol

I think Roblox is completely foreign to older gamers they seem completely unaware of it.

[u/Roadkilll]

They should allow fans to make NS3, like unofficial sequel , if they don't want to have guns in their games.

Game is too unique and amazing to be left behind.

[u/fbp → u/Roadkilll]

Nothing is stopping anyone. You could make a spiritual successor. It's not like they have IP rights on an asymmetrical fps/rts hybrid. It's not like the nemesis system where you try something similar and you get sued.

[u/totalnewbie]

I do not believe any of the original UW leads were reinstated as part of the initial settlement; only the CEO, whose name I do not recall (but who was brought in by later by flayra&co to run the company) was ordered to be reinstated.

AFAIK, only the first part of the lawsuit has been decided and litigation is still ongoing.

Also, as much as I'd love an update, I feel like NS as a concept ticks almost every checkmark for a toxic game environment these days. I think the only reason NS2 doesn't is because the community is incredibly small and I imagine the average player age is into the 30s.

[u/otw → u/totalnewbie]

I think the only reason NS2 doesn't

I think it's still one of the most toxic communities I've ever been in lol

I still enjoy it and find it mostly just kind of funny, but people get so angry.

[u/Farles → u/totalnewbie]

Has there been any serious RTS games developed in the last decade? Two? Seems like warcraft and StarCraft killed their own genres.

[u/ThePegLegPete → u/Farles]

Hell Let Loose is probably the closest I've seen to NS2. The RTS building elements are much much less involved, but the strategy scratches a similar itch.

[u/Devour_My_Soul]

I mean how much talent of the original NS1/2 team is actually left?

Because I am not convinced they could even create a worth successor.

[u/Midnitdragoon]

Always wondered why we can't have a remake of natural selection 1 as a half life 2 mod.

Natural selection 2 is getting some updates in the from of CBM so it's not dead. I dim believe the current Natural 2 we have, it can be insanely popular if they make a few tweaks to it.

[u/3lfk1ng]

It would take a herculean effort from the community to revive this title in order for them to ever consider revisiting it.

Even then, we would likely end up disappointed to discover that it wouldn't be designed for the same audience, and wouldn't include any of the original developers.

They would probably add hero classes, leveling elements, and battle passes in order to appeal to the modern audience.

[u/lizardjoe_xx_YT → u/3lfk1ng]

I mean. The game already has classes for the aliens and kinda leveling for them too. And I wouldnt mind classes for the marine team. Something to allow each player to be more specialized

[u/MetalGearXerox]

Too many factors point to no, a big one being that the original devs of the franchise went "no guns in my videogames anymore".

Doesn't help that NS2 in comparison was not nearly as popular as Subnautica is so i don't think they'd ever sink money into developing a gamble.

Unfortunate, i really loved playing that game the setting and theme were just so unique.

[u/Grockr]

I dont think a game like Natural Selection can find enough success in modern gaming. I think the best hope is some kind of Co-op version with alternative optional PvP mode kind of like Left 4 Dead, but even recent Starship Troopers: Extermination seems to be struggling a bit?

Personally i would love a game that explores the world and setting a bit more. NS2 maps always gave me a desire to know more about the world beyond the map boundary.

When it comes to e-sports its best if it comes up on its own. Blizzard wasted a ton of money trying to make their games a thing and it backfired quite a bit with HotS.

[u/ADHenchD]

I honestly think the fumble of "Video game violence = Real life violence" is such 2000 brained it hurts to know people actually still adhere to that philosophy.

NS was really unique and fun, I haven't even bothered with subnautica, just didn't scratch the itch