Ambitious space game Jump Ship soars to 530k players during Steam Next Fest

It's no secret I was immensely disappointed in Starfield. Many of the 1,000 planets in the Settled Systems are empty, and the sheer number of loading screens between them made exploration a total slog. In all my time with the game, I never truly felt like I was exploring a living universe. No Man's Sky, on the other hand, uses its seamless cosmos to incredible effect. I can land a ship anywhere on a planet, explore, and set off towards the stars with ease. Both Starfield and NMS have their strengths and weaknesses, of course, but what if they were combined? That's exactly what Jump Ship does.

Jump Ship puts you, and up to three of your friends, in control of your very own spacecraft. As your crew travels the stars, you've got to complete a range of chaotic PvE missions. This means manning different parts of your ship, landing on a planet, scavenging for resources, and getting out alive. With no set classes, the key to success is constant improvisation. Maybe you need to shore up your defenses, put out a fire, or adjust your vessel's energy output. Whatever it is, don't be a slouch.

Unlike Starfield, though, everything in Jump Ship is seamless. This means you can easily hop between the tense combat, cosmic exploration, and mind-bending traversal at any moment. This has proved to be a winning formula, and an easy entry on our best space games list, as it's done incredibly well at SNF.

According to Keepsake Games, more than 530,000 players gave the Jump Ship demo a go. That also means over one million missions and 1.7 million hyperjumps were completed, with players spending more than a collective 107 years exploring deep space. Jump Ship was also the third most popular demo at SNF, behind both Wildgate and Vindictus: Defying Fate.

Now that the dust has settled on the demo, the team at Keepsake Games is looking forward. With the Steam Early Access launch slated for summer 2025, there's a lot to do before then. One major sticking point is the inability to take items you find in one mission into your next adventure, which Keepsake Games is planning to address.

"This is a big priority for us," Keepsake Games writes. "Even though we will stick to our core of missions being roguelite in design, we can certainly fix the frustration of not being rewarded for collecting things. Converting collected loot and unused items into credits by mission end is the very least we can do, and that will be added to the main game."

Keepsake also says an Endless Mode is planned for Jump Ship, but that it might not make the early-access launch. The team is even working on text chat as a "must-have" feature as well, while saying voice chat isn't something it's considering right now. You can also expect more graphics options, plenty of tutorial improvements, and a lot more.

Keepsake Games currently has Jump Ship set for a Steam Early Access launch in summer 2025.

If you're looking for more to play with friends, we've got all the best co-op games available on PC today. Alternatively, jump into the action with the best FPS games.

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