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Starbound, a game many see as the spiritual successor to Terraria – the smash-hit indie game that has sold almost 60 million copies worldwide – was released on PC back in 2016. At the time, it was expected that console releases would follow soon after – as it had with Terraria, but now, some 11 years since Starbound first went into Early Access, it seems the journey to console, Xbox at least, is almost complete.
During this time the world has seen a new Xbox and new PlayStation arrive, but finally Chucklefish has announced that Starbound will be arriving on Xbox shortly and that a playtest to work out some final needed tweaks before the launch version is currently underway.
In a post on X, the official Starbound account said, “It’s been a minute, but we’re proud to announce that Starbound is almost ready to launch on Xbox!”. This was the first time the X account had been active since 2022.
The Starbound playtest will run until the 4th of September after which news should come out as to an actual launch date for the game.
“Before we confirm the release date, we would love to involve the Starbound community to get your thoughts and feelings regarding usability – specifically around controls and console-specific design decisions on the Xbox version. This will inform our final changes ahead of the game’s launch and will help us with any further quality-of-life changes for future post-launch patches,” read a blog post on the Starbound website.
Starbound allows you great freedom as you travel around the universe, crafting your ship, making bases, and farming resources on the planets you discover on your journey. While not exactly Terraria in space, the Very Positive review rating on Steam remains a testament to the game’s popularity.
Within a year of its release on PC, Starbound had sold an estimated two and a half million copies, a figure that will be much higher now after years of Steam sales and promotions.
In December 2020 Starbound was added to Xbox Game Pass for PC suggesting that the indie-hit could appear on Xbox Game Pass this time around, although this is unconfirmed at this time.
