Stars Reach, the sandbox MMORPG from Raph Koster's Playable Worlds, entered early access on August 18, MassivelyOP reported. The game was first shown publicly two years ago, at which point it had already been in development for five years, and drew comparisons to Star Wars Galaxies for its full-scale simulation and its emphasis on social, political and crafting systems rather than PvE and PvP alone.
Imagine a galaxy where every cubic meter can be terraformed, populated, and ultimately transformed. Build trade empires, tame wild fauna, and create a functioning government for an entire planet.
The studio describes a universe shaped by the permanence of player actions, where ecosystems evolve, wildlife goes extinct and player-built communities rise and fall. Players can carve rivers, melt stone into lava, harness ecological disasters or burn entire planets to ash. Progression is classless and open-ended, running across hundreds of skills, and the simulation extends to trees growing from saplings, lakes freezing and caves collapsing either naturally or at a player's hand, cutting off areas that were previously accessible.
What is in the early access build
The current version offers what the developers call the foundation of the core experience: combat, building, government, crafting and trade. The studio has stressed that this is an early access release and that the game remains in heavy development for at least six months before a 1.0 launch, with a progression wipe planned before the final release. The roadmap adds guilds, weather, spaceships, improved construction, a mission system and farming.
Three paid packs now, free-to-play later
Players who did not back the Kickstarter can buy in through three editions: a $30 base game pack, a $50 pack with more cosmetics and building items, and an $80 pack that adds further cosmetics and crafting tools. The 1.0 launch next year will make the game free-to-play, so the packs amount to paying for early testing access.
The launch comes after a difficult stretch of funding. The project got this far on pre-bubble investment, bolstered by an unexpected Kickstarter in 2025 that added $750,000, and Playable Worlds still made layoffs at the start of 2026.
