Sea of Stars is on Track to Launch in 2023

Sea of Stars, an RPG inspired by the classics, has been on our radar since The Messenger developer Sabotage Studio announced it back in 2020, and though the wait for the game has been a long one, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be prolonged any further.

Originally set to launch in 2022, it was announced earlier this year that Sea of Stars had been pushed back to 2023– though thankfully, that’s likely to be the final (and only) delay for the game. In a Kickstarter update, Sabotage Studio has confirmed that Sea of Stars is on track to launch in 2023.

“While there is still a lot of work left, the path to launch is clearer than ever. The whole team is aligned and on pace to complete the production for Sea of Stars to release in 2023,” the developer says. “Working towards the infamous BETA milestone, technical unknowns are now behind us and all gameplay systems are locked-in. We are hard at work completing content, balancing and fine tuning the game’s moment-to-moment experience.

“While we cannot provide a specific release date yet, we want to reaffirm that 2023 will be the year Sea of Stars is released.”

The developer has also provided a bit of a development update, confirming that all mainline story content has now been finalized, with the game now being playable from start to finish behind the scenes.

“The game’s main path is fully playable from title screen to end credits,” Sabotage says. “Game mechanics sing the way we were hoping they would, and the story has been finalized with all levels fully playable.”

So what will Sabotage Studio be focusing on from here on out? Once the team is back from a year-end break, it’ll shift its attention to finishing up optional content, localization, polishing up the experience, and more.

“A bit of optional content, a lot of NPCs, localization, a whole lot of bug fixing, and an impossible amount of polishing,” the developer writes. “We are currently operating on a weekly build-review schedule, covering every segment of the game with the finest brush, ensuring readability of the levels, balanced combat, and properly paced cutscenes. To reach BETA, we need every and all moments and  elements of the game to be at the highest  quality we can produce.”

“Once the game reaches BETA (content complete), we will work towards the last milestone, GOLD (bug-free), making sure Sea of Stars offers the best experience for everyone, on all its supported platforms,” Sabotage adds. “This implies performance optimization, accessibility, compliance, localization and quality assurance.”

Sea of Thieves is in development for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5, and PS4.