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Astroneer takes one giant leap out of early access on February 6th

Discover new worlds and do science to them

Cute space survival sandbox Astroneer isn't far from the finish line, say developers System Era Softworks, it'll be bounding out of early access in just a few months - February 6th, specifically. The studio have some big plans for the release - the launch version will include a "new exploration-focused adventure", taking you to new planets full of interesting new things to poke around, or be poked by. The launch version will also support cross-play with Xbox One folks, hopefully ensuring a healthy and well oxygenated player-base for a while. A stardate trailer lies below.

Just last month, our man among the stars Fraser Brown called Astroneer one of the 20 best survival games on PC. He praised its fresh feeling - rather than work your way up from nothing, you start out as a fancy space-scientist. Instead of trying to construct an air-tight log cabin before your oxygen runs out, you're studying worlds, establishing outposts and doing proper exploration for exploration's sake, not because you desperately need a new kind of resource before you die. It apparently works especially well in co-op too, which makes Xbox and PC cross-play all the nicer.

Cover image for YouTube video

The final version of the game will contain another seven worlds to explore, with new alien structures to puzzle out and new dangerous flora that might also be fauna, because space is weird. A bit more of everything, really. Today's update (patch notes here on Steam) includes one new planet, apparently a testbed for a new terrain system. This will apparently be the final early access version released before launch. System Era are officially going into their isolation pods/hyperbolic time chambers to hammer away at the game until launch. Start the countdown.

Astroneer releases on February 6th, and the full version will cost $30. If you don't mind being some sort of astro-pioneer (ooh, I get it now), the early access version on Steam is currently discounted down to £12.59/€15.99/$15.99, with the price set to increase on November 19th.

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Astroneer

Xbox One, PC

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Dominic Tarason

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