Believe it or not, Astroneer is approaching a decade since its 2016 Early Access debut, and developer System Era Softworks is about to open up a new corner of that universe. Today, System Era and publisher Devolver Digital revealed the Early Access release date for STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions, the standalone Astroneer-universe game first announced last year. It launches on June 11 for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, Switch 2, and PC at $29.99. A public playtest also kicks off on June 4 across all four platforms, and any progress earned during that test carries over into the full release.
To be clear, STARSEEKER isn’t Astroneer 2. It’s a standalone co-op expedition game set within the same universe, designed around team-based planetary missions rather than the freeform sandbox loop that made the original a cult favorite with over 11 million players to date. The press release describes a persistent space station, the ESS Starseeker, that serves as the hub for planning expeditions, upgrading gear, and hanging out with other crews between drops. Each landing site has objectives the entire community contributes to.
System Era is pitching this as co-op-first but solo-friendly. You can coordinate with friends or hop on the station alone and still make progress toward the shared goals.
STARSEEKER has been on a steady promotional run through 2026. It first appeared at the Triple-i Initiative Showcase in early April, where the open beta was announced, and showed up again at the ID@Xbox Spring 2026 Showcase later that month, where it was confirmed as a day one Game Pass title with XBOX Play Anywhere support. Today’s release date reveal locks in the launch window and pricing.
System Era isn’t shutting Astroneer down to make STARSEEKER happen. The original is still getting updates, and STARSEEKER is being positioned as a sibling rather than a replacement. The playtest-to-launch progression carryover is also a nice touch, and something I’d like to see more developers adopt for public tests like this.
