Hey everyone.

The Starbound Xbox version is finally almost ready to launch! 🚀

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.

For those of you with an Xbox One or Series console, Starbound will be available to playtest for a limited time as part of the Xbox Insider Program from Wednesday 28th August – Wednesday 4th September! 

The testing pool will be size restricted in order for us to manage and prioritize the feedback we receive, so please note that access is not guaranteed for all users.

Please note: Xbox Series Consoles, Xbox One and Xbox One X are able to host up to 4 players in a party, whereas Xbox One S players are able to host up to 2 players in a party.

What feedback are we looking for?

Our main aim of the playtest is to find the optimal default controller mapping for the launch version using information we receive from the playtest surveys. We want to find out what feels best and most natural for the majority of players, so after you’ve given the default controls a try, you can adjust the mapping and deadzone balancing in the Settings.

• How does the default button mapping feel? Did you make any customisation changes to the layout?
• How responsive do the current controls feel?
• How did the game balancing feel for the Xbox version? (We’ve made slight adjustments to the Xbox version!)
• Do you have any thoughts about the console UI?
• How was the performance and stability?
• Any other console-specific version feedback?

If you experience any bugs during your playtest please let us know via “Report a problem” so we can investigate:

• Hold down the home button on your Xbox controller
• Select Report a Problem
• Select the Games category and the ‘Starbound Demo’ subcategory
• Fill out the form with the appropriate information to help our investigation

How do I get access?

Any Xbox user can get access to the Xbox Insider Program via the Insider Hub app on the Xbox Store. Once you have installed the Insider Hub any Previews that you’re eligible for will be visible within the app. Please note that not all users will be eligible for all game betas (including Starbound), as some playtests are restricted by scale, platform, and other criteria. 

I’ve got thoughts! What should I do with them?

Firstly, thank you for getting involved in the playtest! It’s very hard to collate feedback across lots of social media platforms, so please share your thoughts in this Starbound beta Google Form! You can also access the survey directly from your Xbox console via the Insider Hub ‘Announcements’ section – select “Go” on the announcement to open an Edge browser with the survey linked. Feel free to discuss your thoughts with other players in the Chucklefish Discord or via the Starbound Reddit too.

Thank you all for your patience while we got to this point. It’s been a long road, but we’re glad to have you with us for it!

Chucklefish

Other Resources

• Get the Xbox Insider Hub app
• Xbox Insider FAQ
• How to provide feedback as an Xbox Insider

Hello everyone!

We’ve got some exciting news! Starbound will be releasing December 8th on Xbox Games Pass for PC!! This version is PC only, and identical to other PC versions with the new additions of Xbox achievements, and the ability to invite and join friends through your Xbox Live network.

This is a great chance to try Starbound if you’re an Xbox Games Pass subscriber – and we’re so pleased to have it join the great collection of titles available! It’s a fantastic value at only $9.99 a month and you’ll also gain access to over 100+ wonderful games (aside from our very own Wargroove, we also recommend checking out Carto, Ape Out and Frostpunk).

Last year we shared a number of updates about Starbound’s Xbox console version, which we’d been showing at public events and felt was nearly ready. Our last update was that the console version was suffering from serious performance issues with 3-4 players together in some scenarios and we felt it couldn’t be released to the public in that state. We’ve worked with a number of different developers to try and address this, and have made some progress – but we’re still not confident enough to say when it might be ready. We’ve seen all the requests for an update on console development, and we understand this isn’t the news everyone’s looking for – but we want to address it and reassure we are still working on it with our partners!

We’re also supporting Jingle Jam by Yogscast again this holiday season, where you can grab a bundle with Starbound and some other great titles to support charity! In the meantime, if you want to see what else we at Chucklefish are up to, you can follow us on Twitter here and chat to us in Discord here. Until next time, peacekeepers!

We’re excited to announce the release of Starbound 1.4 – the ‘Bounty Hunter’ update!

In this update players can become bounty hunters, seeking out criminal gangs through missions and climb the ranks as they rebuild the Peacekeepers and restore law and order to the universe. There’s also new elemental variants of many monsters, which have a rare chance to be encountered – if you see one be sure to capture it! In addition there’s a ton of new furniture, objects, weapons, and fun new stuff – including drones, password keypad locks, a laser mining tool, and a sports car!

We’ve been working on this update for a long time, thanks so much for being patient while we took the time to get it just right! Here’s an outline of all the changes;
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