After two and a half years, a survival game on Steam has left Early Access, securing the title of “hidden gem” early on with great user ratings. The official launch is accompanied by the highest player counts in years.
What kind of survival hidden gem is this? The co-op adventure Core Keeper landed on Steam as an Early Access version in March 2022 and quickly generated a small hype:
- The all-time high at launch was a strong 34,377 simultaneous Steam users
- In the first week, the game from the Swedish developer studio Pugstorm sold 250,000 copies
- Buyers rewarded the already high quality of the game at that time with 93 percent positive reviews
Core Keeper is set in a procedurally generated underground world where you are a researcher who is to explore the ancient caves full of creatures, resources, and treasures alongside up to seven other adventurers. You explore, gather, build, show creativity, and fight titans.
Here you can see the official launch trailer for Core Keeper:
“What’s going on here?”
What do I need to know about the release? On August 27, 2024, Core Keeper officially released after a long Early Access phase. At launch, the developers have a message for all players:
Here we are! The storyline of Core Keeper is now complete and can be fully played through. This does not mean there will be no more updates, as we continue to work on new content and explore possibilities for the future of Core Keeper. But if you’ve had the game on your wishlist for a while waiting for the post-Early Access release, now would be the right time to start your adventure.
Pugstorm via Steam
Release update 1.0.0 has gone live with numerous new content, including a world generation system and the “world seeds” function. With this, you can adjust certain parameters such as the number of caves or ore density when starting a world to determine its properties. The full German patch notes can be found on Steam.
According to the developers, Core Keeper will continue to be provided with new content, quality of life improvements, and more beyond 1.0. Currently, the game costs 15.99 Euros (down from 19.99 Euros).
Developer is in disbelief about what’s happening: Fredrik Präntare, CEO and Game Director at Pugstorm, expressed via X how amazed he is at how well the game is doing even now, at the official launch: “What’s going on here? Almost 30,000 simultaneous players! This is beyond my imagination. Thank you to everyone!”
In fact, the 24-hour peak is even at 31,597 simultaneous Steam users, which is just below the all-time high. In a second post on X, the developer explains that they were able to achieve a rate of 99 percent positive reviews at times on release day.
Overall, Core Keeper has a strong 93 percent positive reviews over the past 30 days (Very Positive, with 799 new reviews). Looking at all days since EA launch, there are 26,297 reviews for a “91 percent positive” rating.
A Steam user sums up Core Keeper as follows: “It’s 10 percent Stardew Valley, 20 percent Valheim, 15 percent Don’t Starve, 5 percent Factorio, and 50 percent Terraria. That’s 100 percent reasons to buy the game.” More about the game: Survival hidden gem on Steam breaks 250,000 sales in a week – “Enormous addiction factor”
