In the latest developer update on Stars Reach, Raph Koster and Co. discussed the current status of the MMO and what is still needed to launch Early Access on Steam.
What does the new developer update reveal? In the latest Fireside Chat on YouTube, the team from Stars Reach talked about the current state of the MMO and what is still missing to – as planned – launch Early Access on Steam this summer.
One of the slides shown states: “We are probably just one update or so away from Alpha status.” That things are moving forward at a rapid pace is evidenced by the major patches currently hitting the test servers.
According to genre veteran Raph Koster (Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies), almost the entire core gameplay loop is playable. However, one thing is still missing: the completion of the loop through obtaining loot or crafting items that make the character noticeably better. This currently exists only in a very rudimentary form, which upcoming updates are supposed to complete.
Once this part is in place, Stars Reach is expected to be feature-complete, offering all major core features in playable form. Only then can the developers say it is in Alpha, which would also mark the start of the Early Access phase on Steam. However, they do not want to specify a concrete date other than “summer 2026.”
This is probably also because they want to improve things like performance, UI, or certain systems for Early Access. For example, the crafting area is expected to receive a clear recipe book.
For more about the best genre in the world, check out our MeinMMO YouTube channel. Recently, a video was released where Raph Koster also played an important role:
Still a Long Way to the Final Version
What comes next? In Alpha or during the Early Access phase, the focus will be on expanding the feature-complete foundation with content and fine-tuning the individual areas of the game based on community feedback.
Stars Reach will only reach Beta when the MMO is basically content-complete and only optimization, stress tests, and further fine-tuning remain. It is quite possible that we will only be able to play the release-ready version of Stars Reach in 2028 or later.
What kind of MMO is Stars Reach? For our grindfest theme week 2026, Raph Koster showed me the SciFi MMO for the first time and answered many questions. We are being promised a kind of No Man’s Sky as a sandbox MMO, with the creative possibilities of Minecraft. Whether all this potential and freedom will ultimately result in a really good online role-playing game remains unclear to me. But the simulation behind it all has impressed me: Creator of Star Wars Galaxies wants to reinvent MMOs, his new game impresses us especially with one thing
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