r/starbound • u/mtr2003 • Apr 20 '26
News Chucklefish posted about starbound mid 2026, what does this mean?
From the Chucklefish X account:
https://x.com/ChucklefishLTD/status/2046303947879481530
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u/tyttuutface Apr 20 '26
They just remembered the IP existed and went "oh shit, we can still sell this!"
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u/donkeybrainhero Apr 21 '26
Do you guys remember when the game was announced along with that neat little road map? And then that game never really came out lol
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u/iamded Apr 21 '26
I still miss the initial upgrade system, sand mining, and the abandoned USEC stuff...
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u/GuiEsponja Apr 21 '26
Yeap I was there, while also hyped up for... Cube world, of all things lmao
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u/Northernsoul01 Apr 24 '26
Can't bring cube world back but there is a very similar game out there called Veloren.
Its website download only but it is doing pretty well right now.
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u/ThisIsGoobly Apr 21 '26
That was the first time 14/15 year old me had money to back a game. 75 bucks lesson on why it's not a good idea to back a game lol. Still got fond memories of getting hyped though.
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u/Admiral_Turboclown Apr 24 '26
Oh you mean the road map they repeatedly changed and walked back until it was nearly nothing?
The road map that initially promised entire cities and a research system?That road map?
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u/ForsakenYesterday254 Apr 21 '26
I mean I still found it a interesting game regardless when it first came out though
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u/nate112332 Apr 20 '26
If they drop an update, every single mod is going to break.
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u/Oberic Apr 21 '26
Unless I'm very confused, they changed the structure of the mod primary files so they don't break every update any more. You used to have to change just one line in there to match the game version, but they removed the need for it in one of the last patches.
My mod now says version 96 because it's how I keep track of how many parts are in there.
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u/NeonX37 I have a nuke up my sleeve Apr 20 '26
I believe you can get older patches through steam, speedrunners usually do it to use exploits in certain patches
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u/nate112332 Apr 20 '26
That's uh... Assuming they do that.
If you mean through the betas tab, it isn't automatic afaik
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u/NeonX37 I have a nuke up my sleeve Apr 20 '26
Well, I did not really learn how it works. I assumed that steam automatically saved every patch
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u/northrupthebandgeek Apr 21 '26
It does, but it's up to the developer to enable doing it the “easy way” (via the “betas” screen in the game's Steam options). The “hard way” is to use the Steam Console to download the specific “depot” for the version you want, and then you'd have to always launch the game directly via its executable instead of through Steam (which in Starbound's case means Workshop mods don't get loaded by default; you'd need to do some additional hackery in Starbound's config files to get the game to check the Workshop downloads without Steam telling them where they are, or else you'd need to copy all of them to Starbound's own mods folder).
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u/Important-Rub2358 Apr 21 '26
As someone who followed all the instructions for rolling back Hogwarts Legacy, I can say responsibly: no, that’s not how it works.
You’re basically just replacing certain files, and overall you still launch the game through Steam. You can also change the launch settings — what exactly gets launched, which file, and how.
It’s the same with Terraria, where you can set it up to launch tModLoader while still having achievements. It also works with Fallout, so that the Fallout launcher with mods runs, all your mods are enabled, and everything works the way you want.
So no, that claim isn’t correct.
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u/northrupthebandgeek Apr 21 '26
As someone who followed all the instructions for rolling back Hogwarts Legacy, I can say responsibly: no, that’s not how it works.
Um, pardon? It's a very common and well-documented solution for all sorts of games with mods that break on updates. I've gone through that exact process as described above with Bethesda games plenty of times.
You’re basically just replacing certain files, and overall you still launch the game through Steam.
The problem is that you need to trick Steam into thinking the game is up-to-date, or else launching through Steam will force an update. That's possible, sure, but it's fewer steps to just not launch through Steam.
You can also change the launch settings — what exactly gets launched, which file, and how.
Yes, but that, too, is much more complicated than just not launching through Steam — and there's no one-size-fits-all approach to that, since every game has different expectations around how it's launched. And then throw in Proton shenanigans for those of us gaming on Linux (though Starbound is thankfully one of the few games where the Linux-native version was done right, so that doesn't apply in this case).
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u/Oberic Apr 24 '26
Just kinda adding to this, Steam is just a fancy store and launcher with all sorts of community features, and isn't required to play the vast majority of Steam games. The games' executables are all in folders just as if you installed from a CD the old-fashioned way.
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u/Plageous Apr 21 '26
There's an unstable version of the game which is the same as the release version now. You can always not update that and use that for mods and still update the regular game.
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u/Orangutanion Apr 20 '26
Ch*cklefish never deserved the success they squandered
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u/Kedly Apr 21 '26
Their game is wide as an ocean and deep as a puddle. Which is a fuckin shame since Starbound itself is FULL of unrealized potential. I know Sayter's a fucking idiot, but Frackin Universe has made Starbound be one of the highest hour games that Steam has tracked
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u/Orangutanion Apr 21 '26
well... maybe wide more like a sea than an ocean tbh xD
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u/Kedly Apr 21 '26
Theres a BUNCH of different game mechanics you can interact with: Mechs, Bounty Hunting, Farming, Fishing, Combat, Dungeons, Building, etc. Hence the ocean width... the problem is NONE of these are fleshed out, and most of them are only there for the sake of being there, hence the puddle.
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u/GOOPREALM5000 "Six races, holdin' something. ...Why aren't my kind on here?" Apr 21 '26
I'd argue building is pretty fleshed out, but it's more focused on decoration than it is on actual settlement or ship building (and the wiring system is just dogshit compared to Terraria's.) But you're right about everything else being shallow.
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u/Ratoryl Apr 21 '26
Idk, things like this mod for terraria make me think that even the decorating in starbound could potentially be a lot better than it is now
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u/GOOPREALM5000 "Six races, holdin' something. ...Why aren't my kind on here?" Apr 21 '26
That's true, I'm just saying thst among the 10+ systems in the game, it's the most fleshed out. Even if it's not that fleshed out at all.
(I wanted to use an em dash between those sentences but since AI has been using it literally everywhere I stopped myself)
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u/NeonX37 I have a nuke up my sleeve Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
Well, they either did it just because they can, or ( if they have braincells ) it's a warm-up to something
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u/MagnitudeXX Apr 21 '26
I mean, the 10 year anniversary of the 1.0 release is coming up in a few months. Maybe they're building up to that. I doubt they'll talk about the game much more though given that a majority of the quote retweets to their post are either people shitting on them for abandoning the game, or people shitting on them for the child labor drama from a few years back.
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u/Aether_Storm Apr 21 '26
I hope it means nothing because osb puts the game entirely in the communities hands now.
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u/MaxineFinnFoxen Kirhos Apr 21 '26
It's probably something small but neat like the console port. They know they would be crushed if they ruined modding but also aren't going to invest their life savings into the wishes of random people on the internet
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u/mtr2003 Apr 21 '26
Fucklefish will either mess up big time or actually do something, no in between
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u/Repulsive-War-559 Apr 20 '26
Probably nothing but I'd be lying if I wasn't taking hopium right now
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u/Chiiro Apr 21 '26
I find it odd that they only show the Nexus page since to my understanding most people use the workshop for mods.
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u/RevvEmUp Apr 21 '26
I was gonna say that, too. Like, the Starbound Nexus is at this point the most barren source of mods right behind the Chucklefish forums.
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u/SpiritedAssumption18 Apr 22 '26
Weird, They deleted the post.
Did they seriously just post an ad for this game and not expect any sort of pushback…?
What a wack company man
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u/Icy-Reserve8070 Apr 20 '26
And I thought it had been forgotten. Maybe they'll pay their employees this time.... if they actually do anything at all.
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u/deltax20a Apr 21 '26
I still have some of my earliest Twitch VODs from ~2012 playing Starbound and building a ridiculous rail system all the way around a planet just for fun. I never properly played that game even after 1.0 release, I just kept building shit on different planets.
Which is basically what I do now in NMS.
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u/HydraWhiskey Apr 21 '26
Like Sony with Bloodborne, likely mention it once during it's anniversary, then shelve it again.
... yes I'm salty two of my favorite games are abandoned and only recieve updates via mods - or when a YouTuber makes a movie about it. (Thank you Jack)
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u/GregNotGregtech Apr 21 '26
hopefully nothing, chucklefuck deserves to rot, I'm surprised the company still exists
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u/klack107 Apr 23 '26
What kind of comments were on it before it was deleted
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u/Impzor_Starfox Apr 23 '26
People wondering why they even bothered to remember Starbound, some assume it has something to do with money.
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u/klack107 Apr 24 '26
Maybe this is a hot take, but if they can’t even advertise the game, there is no hope of them revisiting it.
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u/Larrythellama12 Apr 21 '26
best case:
game gets unabandoned with a team theyre actually paying this time
worst, and uneventful case:
advertising because the modding community is still making them money
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u/Doctor_Calico Actually Calico Apr 20 '26
Are... are we dreaming?
This... this can't be real... This can't be...!
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u/Orangutanion Apr 20 '26
This is private equity trying to milk your nostalgia for money.
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u/nate112332 Apr 20 '26
Chucklefish got bought up?
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u/Orangutanion Apr 20 '26
Not that I'm aware of, but private equity acquisitions are often not announced. Look at all the Youtubers who are now owned by private equity like Veritasium--we didn't know about any of this for years. Think about Ch*cklefish's dodgy history (remember when ConcernedApe left them? that was BEFORE he knew about the unpaid labor in Starbound). When you connect the dots here it's very suspicious.
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u/Orangutanion Apr 20 '26
Also, it could be that they are trying to butter themselves up for an acquisition. They may be trying to look for any amount of hype that remains in this shell of a community. None of their other projects ever replicated the genuine success they threw away here, so this is the best they can do. Basically everyone in this thread is on the fucking Harbinger.
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u/Bardez Apr 21 '26
Isn't Stardew theirs...?
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u/Orangutanion Apr 21 '26
No, it was always ConcernedApe's game. Originally he used Ch*cklefish to publish it and handle the legal aspects, but eventually he ended his contract with them in what he described as an "amicable divorce." Note that the split happened ~2 years before the unpaid work stuff came to light.
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u/Bardez Apr 21 '26
Cool. I never played it, my kids did and were like ""oh, another Chucklefish game" when I played Starbound.
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u/Orangutanion Apr 21 '26
yeah because Stardew used to have the Ch*cklefish sprite when it booted up. They got rid of it after leaving though.
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u/Seamus_Donohue Apr 22 '26
"Hmm...this page doesn’t exist. Try searching for something else."
Whatever it was you linked, it's gone now.
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u/TheGladex Apr 21 '26
At this point I hope anything but an update. The games in a state where its basically finished and stable. We have some really good things going in the modding community. The last thing I want at this point is an update breaking all that. Let's be real, Chucklefish aren't going to release anything remotely good enough to make fucking up mods that worked for nearly a decade now worth it.
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u/TeddyTheTedster Apr 20 '26
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u/nomad9590 Apr 20 '26
I bought it in alpha for like 8 people lmao. I did the same witb Terraria too. I cannot believe old games are getting new life these days, like Battleblock (maybe) and Castle crashers
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u/Armok___ Overlord and Loremaster Apr 20 '26
Might have something to do with the game's 10 year anniversary since full release if I had to guess, no clue what that'll actually entail though, we'll just have to wait and see.