Subnautica 2 dev sounds foghorn about ‘fraudulent links’ being sent to community members: ‘We will never contact anyone by Steam DM for any potential playtests’

The Subnautica 2 community drifted into shark-infested waters recently, as developer Unknown Worlds cautioned players about “fraudulent links” to a supposed playtest being sent out to fans and community members on Steam.

Reported by GamesRadar, the Subnautica 2 developer first sounded the alarm on X, posting that it had “been made aware” fake links to a playtest of the highly anticipated sequel were being messaged to community members on Steam, and warned players sthat “we will never contact anyone by Steam DM for any potential playtests.”

As tends to be the case with phishing scams, it isn’t clear where these links originated from. But over on Subnautica’s official Discord, community manager Donya Abramo stressed that “Any contact regarding studies or playtests will only ever be sent by email from an Unknown Worlds address.” The developer did recently invite players to join a “User Research Participant Pool”, which the team uses to get feedback from the community. But the link to this is available only on the Discord server. So if you see it elsewhere, beware.

As for anyone who has already fallen foul of the false links, Abramo suggests you “change your password immediately to secure your account” and advises activating two-factor authentication.

Subnautica 2 isn’t the only game to be used in this type of scam lately. In January, TechRadar Gaming reported that Steam users received phishing links masquerading as playtest invitations for the upcoming Mafia: The Old Country. A canny reddit user took a screenshot of the dodgy link, and at a glance it looks pretty legitimate, with a link preview showing an image of the game’s logo, and the link itself utilising part of the official steam link format.

In situations like this, a general rule of thumb is never click on a link sent directly to you unless you know exactly who sent it. That said, I can understand the desire to get into a Subnautica 2 playtest. The original is among my favourite games, and I enjoyed the spinoff Subnautica: Below Zero almost as much. As demonstrated in its teaser trailer from late last year, Subnautica 2 very sensibly adds the option to explore its aquatic alien world in co-op. The sequel is due to land in early access sometime this year, though a formal release date is yet to be revealed.