Subnautica devs have been sneaking screenshots of the upcoming sequel into existing time capsules, and they finally got caught

We haven't heard much about the upcoming Subnautica 2, apart from the devs reassuring fans that it won't be a live service game, so fans are understandably excited at the discovery of secret new screenshots of the sequel. 

An eagle-eyed Subnautica player spotted what looked like a strange new creature in a time capsule. The picture includes a few new rainbow tadpole-like creatures, which we haven't seen before. "Hey um, found this on my way to the rocket," the image's description says. "Is this thing new? Never seen it before! :O" 

This kicked up quite a fuss as even veteran players couldn't identify the odd sea creature leading some to believe that this has to be from some kind of mod: "That looks quite similar to that screenshot they shared a few months ago," one player says. "Could just be mods and a weird perspective tho."

However, it turns out that this isn't from any mod, it's actually a new screenshot from the upcoming Subnautica 2. While a couple players theorised that this could be the case no one was certain until a moderator officially confirmed suspicions. "Yes, this is real," the mod Bumblebee_Tuna says. "There may or may not be others to find." Which sounds like the go-ahead for a treasure hunt to me. 

"The time capsules are found in Subnautica 1," Bumblebee_Tuna continues. "The screenshot is from the upcoming Subnautica 2." While there's hopefully more screenshots to uncover, no new creatures have been added to the first Subnautica as part of this treasure hunt, although there are a few fan-made mods. So don't get your hopes up too high. 

Other than these new screenshots in the time capsules there's not much else to go off of for the upcoming sequel. The developers did appear on Reddit a couple of months ago asking for questions and suggestions but for now it just seems like business as usual as players wait for the current release window of 2025.