Astroneer Dev Explains Current Lack of PS4 Version, No Early Access Program Cited As Reason

Of the many games to release since the PS4 and Xbox One entered the world, indie games have formed a major backbone of support for both consoles. The PS4 had a pretty strong lead thanks to Microsoft’s restrictive indie policies but ID@Xbox has served to turn things around for the Xbox One. However, it’s still interesting to see an indie title skip the PS4 and head to the Xbox One instead.

Such is the case with System Era’s Astroneer, a space exploration title that will be available in December for Steam Early Access and through the Xbox Game Preview program. We recently got in touch with co-founder Adam Bromell and asked him why it’s currently an Xbox One console exclusive and what exactly is stopping them from launching on the PlayStation 4.

“One of the best things about Astroneer is that its a game being built for a paid-alpha platform. We’re build a game made for the ‘early access’ process: It’ll fail without player feedback. Microsoft has a great platform for this with their Game Preview program for Xbox One and Windows 10 store. It’s similar to Steam Early Access in many ways, which made it a very easy transition for us to go from being Steam exclusive to being available on both Steam and Xbox Game Preview.”

That being said, the developer could consider the PS4 in the future. “Astroneer could end up on a Sony console at some point, but for now we can only work with platforms that support our development process and that means Early Access and Game Preview.”

So once again, if Sony wants titles like Astroneer on its platform, it’ll need to have some kind of early access program sooner or later. Thoughts on the matter? Let us know in the comments.