Developers of the cozy RV simulator Outbound have moved up their PC release date to May 11 to steer clear of Subnautica 2's early access launch on May 14. The change aims to avoid direct competition with the highly anticipated underwater survival game. Outbound's demo will be removed from Steam on May 8.
On April 30, the Outbound team announced the schedule shift in a Steam blog post, as spotted by GamesRadar. “The highly anticipated title Subnautica 2 just revealed their release date – which falls exactly on our planned release date May 14th,” the developers wrote. “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.” They described the move as needing to “dodge the Leviathan.”Outbound will now launch on May 11 for PC and Xbox, the same platforms hosting Subnautica 2's early access debut. The game retains its original May 14 release on PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Switch 2, where Subnautica 2 will not appear. With over 1 million wishlists on Steam, Outbound stands as the only notable indie title so far adjusting its plans around the survival sequel.Subnautica 2 follows a messy legal battle for its developers and enters early access on Steam soon. No other popular upcoming games have announced similar changes yet.