Dev says American gun law frustration means guns will never be added to Subnautica

The developer of underwater survival adventure Subnautica has explained why the game does not equip players with guns to defend themselves.

I am sorta confused at all the non-lethal items that are in the game to fend off predators and the only lethal thing I know of is the knife,” a Steam forum user asked.

Developer Unknown Worlds then explained that the decision relates to America’s gun laws.

Subnautica was being birthed right around the time of the Sandy Hook shooting. This was a particularly nasty shooting, although many people don’t realize America has school shootings every day. Every. Single. Day,” the reply explained.

Yet, for reasons I cannot understand, our people and the corporations that influence our country want to continue making it easy for people to get, carry and use pistols, semi-automatic and fully-automatic weapons. I’ve never believed that video game violence creates more real-world violence. But I couldn’t just sit by and ‘add more guns’ to the world either.

So Subnautica is one vote towards a world with less guns. A reminder that there is another way forward. One where we use non-violent and more creative solutions to solve our problems. One where we are not at the top of the food chain.”