As you would expect from a multiplayer-focused entry in the series, the showcase for STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions leans quite heavily into giving us a look at the multiplayer gameplay. The showcase also features creative director Adam Bromell providing a few details for the upcoming title, while also teasing some of the new content coming to Astroneer in its Megatech DLC.

“With this game, I didn’t want to just make a sequel to Astroneer,” explained Bromell in the video. “This is not Astroneer 2. This is a game that really represents the kind of online sandbox games that I want System Era to be known for, so much so that it is a whole new genre, and it is a whole new title. That game is STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions.”

STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions has been described as a “full-blown expedition game” with the gameplay revolving around improvisation as well as co-operation. In the title, players are recruits on an experimental space station dubbed the ESS Starseeker. Working under the leadership of the Fronteer Force, players are tasked with setting off on timed missions on different alien worlds.

The showcase for STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions focused on three main steps that players will have to go through: gearing up for a mission, deploying on to a hostile planet, and surviving and celebrating the success of their missions. The video gave us a look at these three steps by showcasing a mission on planet Tephra.

Tephra itself is described as being “a lush and mysterious planet” that features vast oceans, cavernous depths to dive, and tangled jungles to navigate. Through Tephra, System Era Softworks has also highlighted the fact that each planet in STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions will be hand-crafted, which will allow players to revisit points of interest that the might have spotted in a previous run but didn’t have the time to go check out.

In the video, a squad deployed on to Tephra with the mission to help in repairing critical equipment used by the science team. The squad was forced to improvise the repairs when the equipment was found to have been gooped up by the local fauna.

As for the original Astroneer, its Megatech DLC will bring with it a host of new content for players that enjoy the game’s base-building and automation aspects. This means the ability to create massive structures and more complex automation system using expanded versions of tools already in the game like rail lines. The DLC will be accompanied by a free update that also brings with it a few new items, as well as a new megastructure-styled project that will have players dip their toes into the large-scale automation offered by the DLC. Megatech, along with the free update, are slated for release in November 2025.

STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions will be coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch in 2026.

After spending over two years in development on Steam Early Access (and even heading to Xbox Game Preview), System Era Softworks’ Astroneer is finally available. PC and Xbox One players can now partake in update 1.0, which adds a new solar system, new items for crafting, new vehicles, and much more.

With almost 40 early access updates till date, Astroneer sees players exploring the solar system, exploiting the sandbox as they see fit. You can create bases, mine the terrain (or shape it with the deform tool), craft gigantic structures, or just explore numerous crafted planets. Four player online drop-in/drop-out co-op is also supported, which makes for even more hijinks.

There are plenty of mysteries abounding in the universe as well, as the launch trailer below teases. Whether players work to understand these or simply gallivant around, making their own way, is completely up to them. For more information on Astroneer’s premise and how it got started, check out GamingBolt’s interview with the development team from 2017.

Among the bigger blockbusters making the rounds at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, smaller releases like System Era Softworks’ endearing space exploration/survival title Astroneer has received a snazzy new trailer. Not only that but the developer also confirmed that version 1.0 would finally be releasing in December 2018. The game has been in Steam Early Access since December 2016.

The trailer itself features ample amounts of gameplay, from the world changing to enemies and cave exploration. Various planets can be explored and effectively mined for resources to survive. System Era Softworks also revealed that the game would update research systems, introduce new resource types, vehicles and modules, support Mac and even include a narrative.

Post-launch plans currently include cartography, mod support, weather systems and liquid on the planets. Head here for more information on the same. The real question is: Will the Xbox One version also be ready to leave Game Preview in December 2018? We’ll have to wait for confirmation on the same.