Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions is a significant departure from the base-building space survival game that preceded it. Along with a shift toward a session-based extraction shooter-style gameplay loop, Starseeker is also adopting a live-service model to deliver fresh content and gameplay twists regularly. It's an ambitious move that may inspire fears of the typical live-service pain points: FOMO, microtransactions, and aggressive player-retention strategies that keep players engaged for longer than they might like. Thankfully, System Era has shown a commitment to avoiding those aspects of the model.
In an interview with The Best War Games, System Era co-founder and Starseeker creative director Adam Bromell spoke passionately about handling the game's live-service implementation in an ethical manner that's considerate of both players and developers. Essentially, Starseeker aims to leverage the best features of a live-service model while shooing away the aspects that don't align with the team's prosocial mission.
Starseeker Doesn't Mind If You Can't Always Play
Fans of live-service games often struggle with numerous titles vying for their attention, either through FOMO or game mechanics that can punish players for failing to check in regularly. Recently, this was highlighted by Dune: Awakening, where players must log in periodically to pay taxes and maintain their generators, or they could potentially lose tens of hours of progress. Refreshingly, Bromell says that he often considers ways to handle a live-service game that doesn't punish players—directly or indirectly—for the amount of time they can put into the game:
“It’s technically a live-service game. We want continuous support so we can sustain ourselves and our players, but we want to do it in a way that doesn’t stress players out. I play a lot of live-service games, and I think about: can we be the kind where it doesn’t matter if you give us two hours a month, a week, or a day? Play how you want. It’s a sandbox—we give you agency from the very first UX beats.”
The live-service model can appeal to players with limited playtime as long as they aren't made to feel like they're missing out, turning what should be a meaningful experience into a weekly to-do list item to check off. By removing the pressure to play routinely and the consequences for failing to do so, players with limited time might actually be more keen to revisit Starseeker when they have a chance.
How Starseeker Avoids FOMO
FOMO is a difficult problem to tackle for live-service games, as their evolving nature means players may inevitably miss out on limited-time events and content. One way Bromell hopes to alleviate this is by 'unvaulting' previous seasonal content from time to time. While this ensures that players who missed out the first time have another chance to experience the content, it also makes the workload manageable for System Era. Rather than needing to work excessive hours or greatly expand the team, the Starseeker team can work at a more comfortable pace, which tends to benefit players with higher-quality content at the same time. Bromell says:
That means avoiding FOMO. We literally had a meeting about the ‘Disney Vault.’ I’d love to be on Season 5 and bring the Season 3 planets ‘out of the vault’ so players can come back and complete those stickers. If you missed it, maybe it returns. Also, I don’t want to grind my team into a pulp. I don’t want to balloon from 60 people to 600. I want us to sustain players’ interest and respect their time and money ethically—and let our folks work sane hours.”
So far, Starseeker sounds like a breath of fresh air among the countless live-service games that take a more heavy-handed approach to player retention. For gamers who enjoy the idea of an ever-evolving title but find it difficult to remain committed, System Era's upcoming co-op game might be the answer.
- Released
- 2026
- Developer(s)
- System Era Softworks
- Publisher(s)
- Devolver Digital
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op
- Number of Players
- Single-player
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Action, Adventure, Sandbox, Exploration, Open-World
