'Starbound' Release Date News: Chucklefish's Sci-Fi Sandbox Exits Early Access July 22

Two long years after Starbound made its Steam Early Access debut, Chucklefish has finally announced plans to release the launch build of the game. And the Starbound release date reveal continues a recent trend of last-minute launch announcements, arriving less than a month before Chucklefish will release the game to the general public.

The road to launch has been anything but quick for the U.K.-based studio. Starbound was originally announced in 2012 and first sold via a pre-order offer on the Humble Store. The game remained inaccessible to the general public until December 2013 , when it hit Early Access, and needed more than two and a half years in Steam’s developmental program. In total, creation took almost five years and will continue for an unspecified period after the Starbound release date. On the plus side, that also means Chucklefish had plenty of time to prepare the community for launch.

According to a new post on the official blog, Starbound v1.0 will hit Steam on July 22. There’s currently no word on whether or not we can expect a launch sale, but we do have some idea of how the game will change later this month. Back in April, we learned Starbound v1.0 will include a brand new campaign , sending players all over the galaxy, along with new bosses and other enemies to encounter. The game’s crafting mechanics will also get an overhaul, making recipes “more meaningful and interesting,” along with the ship progression introduced in 2014 . Last, but certainly not least, it seems safe to assume Starbound v1.0 will include the same bug fixes and balance tweaks we’ve seen in most of the game’s patches.

Starbound is in development for PC, Mac and Linux. The game debuts July 22.

Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more Starbound news throughout 2016 and for however long Chucklefish supports Starbound in the years ahead.