What ever happened to the Space Engineers Xbox One version?

In case you still don’t know, Space Engineers is a sandbox game about engineering, construction, exploration and survival in space and on planets. Players build space ships, space stations, planetary outposts of various sizes and uses, pilot ships and travel through space to explore planets and gather resources to survive. It’s basically a ‘space Minecraft’, which is pretty cool if you think about it.

Back on August 12 2014, an official statement by Keen Software House was made; the Space Engineers Xbox One version launch was confirmed.

Read the following statement found on their official website here:

“Independent developer Keen Software House has announced that their space-based sandbox game, Space Engineers, which has become a viral hit on PC via Steam Early Access, will be released for Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, via the ID@Xbox self-publishing program. The game will be exclusive* on Xbox One for twelve months and will retain its trademark open-ended creative and survival gameplay. The news was first announced live during the Xbox news briefing at gamescom 2014.


Space Engineers offers a robust platform for creative gamers to build and maintain space stations and ships in a single or multi-player environment. Offering both Survival and Creative modes, as well as resource management, multiplayer, and even combat, the limits of what can be built and played are only bound by the player’s own creativity. 


“We are really excited to introduce Space Engineers to an all new audience on Xbox One and provide gamers from around the world the same open-ended creative environment that has enamored PC gamers,” said Marek Rosa, CEO and Founder, Keen Software House. “With the power of Xbox One, we will be able to offer all of our features with amazing multiplayer options. We expect the Xbox community to unleash amazing creations and astounding worlds that we can’t even imagine.”


*The 12 months exclusivity relates to consoles only. PC version and possible other ports (eg. Mac, Linux, mobiles, tablets) are unaffected by this”


I still remember those days; one week before the announcement or so, I discovered this game and fell in love with it instantly. So the second I read the announcement and watched the trailer my hype level was over 9000.

As you can see, the trailer is still live on both the Keen Software House and Xbox official youtube accounts, but since it was announced, few have been the news or updates given to fans about development of this title.

Back on 2014 the Game Preview program wasn’t a thing yet, but now it is; this would suit Space Engineers perfectly; the PC version has not been finished yet. It’s a huge game and it is being constantly updated with new content. KSH could really take advantage of the Xbox Game Preview program and release an early build with monthly updates in order to slowly but steadily shape the game while being able to put a price tag to it.

It’s pretty clear something is not going in the right direction as not a single mention of the SE Xbox one version has been officially made by neither KSH or Microsoft.

Does this mean the release has been cancelled? I really hope that’s not the case; I could see myself spending a ton of hours playing this title both with friends and on my own.

I’ll guess we will have to keep wating to find out what ends up happening; due to the silent approach of both companies, sadly only time will tell.
*UPDATE 24th September, 2017*

Marek Rosa, KHS CEO, finally answered and confirmed that the Xbox One version is still on the works. There is still no release date despite the obvious delay but at least we have official confirmation. This is definitely good news for Space Engineers fans and for every one who enjoy open world survival games.
Marek stated it’s taking time due to “being a technically challenging task”, as you can read above;

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