From Press Release:
San Marcos, CA – June 3, 2026 – Developer Playable Worlds is thrilled to announce that their highly anticipated science-fantasy MMORPG, Stars Reach, is launching via Steam Early Access this summer.
Created by Raph Koster, the designer of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, Stars Reach is a modern sandbox MMO about finding your place in the galaxy and then shaping it. Across a vast simulated universe, players explore new planets, build homes and settlements, gather resources, craft, trade, fight, govern, and leave a lasting mark on the worlds they discover. Across land and space, players battle hostile creatures and defend their homesteads, approaching encounters their way through Stars Reach’s flexible, classless progression system.
In Stars Reach, every action has ripple effects. Players can plant seedlings or burn forests, carve rivers through terrain, harvest resources, build roads and farms, or transform the area around their home into a place worth living in. Ecosystems evolve through simulated climate, wildlife, and player behavior rather than pre-scripted events, creating a galaxy where the world itself becomes a record of what players have done.
Stars Reach is built around discovery and emergent moments. There are no fixed classes and no single correct way to play. Players can become explorers, builders, crafters, traders, fighters, leaders, or something entirely their own.
“This is a game I have been dreaming about building for thirty years,” Raph Koster said. “We want to bring together the best lessons from modern online games and the sense of freedom and community that were present in older MMOs. Stars Reach is a living galaxy that brings back that feeling of stepping into an alternate reality.”
Playable Worlds is led by co-founders Raph Koster and Eric Goldberg, and its cloud-native technology makes the reactive online world in Stars Reach possible. Built on a first-of-its-kind architecture running partly on the cloud, Stars Reach supports a global, persistent universe on a single server with no resets, so the galaxy evolves over time.
Stars Reach enters Early Access with players invited to come in early and help shape what the game becomes. At launch, the Early Access version will include exploration across multiple planets, resource gathering and harvesting, exciting combat, an in-depth crafting system, trading between players, and more. Additional features will be added progressively throughout development, including a planet-eating hive mind players must collectively defend against, factions and political structures, and PvP combat.
Players can choose from three paid Early Access tiers: the Firstlight Pack ($29.99), the Voyager Pack ($49.99), and the Cosmonaut Pack ($79.99), each offering increasing rewards and cosmetics.
Key Features:
A living, breathing galaxy shaped by players’ actions: Worlds react dynamically to what players do. Forests grow, spread, and burn. Creatures migrate. Rivers flow naturally and can be redirected and dammed. Nothing is scripted or reset, as the universe evolves organically over time.
Planets with unique ecosystems and socio-political structures: Every world features its own climates, seasons, resources, and environment conditions. As players settle planets, they can establish governments, and impose taxes, allowing each location to form its own identity.
Fast-paced combat across land and space: Engage in combat both on planets and among the stars, using customizable weapons and loadouts for tactical MMO-inspired encounters to high-energy space encounters.
A classless leveling system for ultimate freedom: Players can climb up the skill ladder of multiple professions and specialties. Supporting multiple playstyles, Stars Reach’s open-ended leveling system adapts to how you want to play.
A fully player-driven economy: Gather resources, craft equipment and structures, build cities with others and trade across the galaxy. As economies grow, untamed planets transform into bustling communities and industrial hubs.
Stars Reach launches into Early Access on PC via Steam this summer. For more information, follow Playable Worlds on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, BlueSky, and Facebook. Join the official Discord here.
About Playable Worlds
Playable Worlds, Inc. is a game studio building vast, living online worlds where players connect, explore, and make their mark. Founded in 2018 by online gaming veterans Raph Koster and Eric Goldberg, the San Marcos, CA-based studio combines proprietary cloud-native technology with deep expertise in game design, community building, and live service operations. For more information, please visit playableworlds.com.
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