Unknown Worlds Entertainment

Unknown Worlds Entertainment is an American video game developer founded in San Francisco in 2001 by Charles “Charlie” Cleveland and Adam “Max” McGuire. Emerging from the Half-Life modding community, the studio built its early reputation with Natural Selection, a hybrid of first-person shooter action and real-time strategy, before developing the standalone Natural Selection 2.

The studio creates commercial PC and console games spanning survival, exploration, strategy, multiplayer systems, and digital tabletop tactics. Its work is associated with community-integrated Early Access development, allowing players to engage with games during production and continuing development through live updates.

Games and technology

Unknown Worlds is best known for Subnautica, the underwater open-world survival adventure that entered Early Access in 2014 and launched fully in 2018. The franchise later expanded with Subnautica: Below Zero, while the studio also developed Moonbreaker, a turn-based digital miniature tactics game created in collaboration with science-fiction author Brandon Sanderson. Its catalogue additionally includes Zen of Sudoku, Natural Selection, and Natural Selection 2, with Subnautica 2 continuing the studio’s work in cooperative survival gameplay.

Its technical work includes the proprietary Spark Engine, development tooling, 3D environment production, creature animation, UI/UX implementation, online multiplayer networking, server architecture, and live-service content updates. The studio has worked across Windows, macOS, Linux, Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch platforms.

Current operations

Unknown Worlds operates as a globally distributed, remote-first team with a San Francisco home base. It is an active autonomous subsidiary of KRAFTON, Inc., which acquired the company in 2021. The studio’s reported workforce falls within the 201–500 employee range and spans North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.