EVERSPACE 2 has been in development for five years, the first two and a half years were worked on before Early Access started on January 18, 2021. Releasing Early Access to gain feedback from the community and base their work on input received. On February 6, they uploaded a trailer that features the release date and the story.
The developers, ROCKFISH, describe their game as “a fast-paced single-player space shooter with deep exploration, tons of loot, and classic RPG elements.”
According to the game website, ROCKFISH originally issued call to action stating, “As a small indie team to creating a full-blown open-world space looter shooter as an ambitious AA PC game with EVERSPACE 2, we need your help more than ever.” Starting off as an AAA mobile game development ROCKFISH started to go into PC games in 2014. They held a Kickstarter campaign in 2019, raising over $550k for EVERSPACE 2 an $75k increase compared to its predecessor. ROCKFISH has been over the past few years including community involvement by hosting live streams on their YouTube page that includes Q&As as well as changes after the alpha updates. 87% of over 5,000 Steam reviewers had rated a positive experience during Early Access. Developers have released information throughout Early Access including concept art of various space crafts and world generation.
Dan Stapleton, game reviewer for IGN states that “dropping its predecessor’s format feels like a good decision thanks to a promising story and a good amount of hand-built content…This is definitely one to look forward to when it comes out of Early Access.”
ROCKFISH announced towards the end of the trailer that EVERSPACE 2 will be released on April 6th of this year. The game will be released on Steam and the Microsoft Store. Meanwhile, the game is not being released on consoles until sometime in the summer. EVERSPACE 2 will also be released on the Nintendo Switch.