Raph Koster said Stars Reach will enter early access this summer, putting the MMO's planet-scale simulation in players' hands after years of work. He described it as the game he has wanted to make for 30 years. That makes the launch a test of whether an old MMO idea can still reach a wider audience.
Raph Koster and Stars Reach
Koster is the designer behind Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. He said, "This is the game I have wanted to make for 30 years" during a guided tour of Stars Reach. He also said, "We are about bringing back that dream of an alternate world where you can be someone you aren't in a place that's impossible with your friends and have adventures and discover unreality."
Thousands of planets in Stars Reach
Stars Reach spans thousands of planets connected by wormholes that can appear and disappear over time. Every cubic meter of every planet has temperature, humidity, geology, and hundreds of material properties. Players can melt stone into lava and cool it into new rock formations.
MMOs, not scripts
Koster said the game is designed around emergence rather than prescription. He said, "MMOs aren't a game genre," and, "They're virtual places in which you put games." The practical result is a world built for mining asteroids, terraforming landscapes, building cities, crafting starships, running businesses, becoming entertainers, establishing governments, or simply exploring.
World of Warcraft narrowed the lane
Koster said he originally pitched a version of the project as a follow-up to Ultima Online in the late 1990s. He also said the technology has only now caught up to the ambition of the project. When World of Warcraft became one of the most successful games ever made, he said, "They did a phenomenal job," but "it does mean that a lot of the possibility space for MMOs was narrowed down."
The open question is the exact date in summer when early access begins. Players in Stars Reach now have a near-term window, but the launch still leaves the final timing to be set.
