Astroneer studio joins Devolver Digital as a first party developer

System Era has joined with the publisher that almost published them eight years ago.

System Era
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It’s an exciting day for System Era, the developer behind Astroneer, as it has announced the team has joined Devolver Digital as a first party studio. Devolver Digital has long been a massive champion for indie games and developers, so this is a natural fit. The press release also hints that a project is already in development.

In the early hours of November 1, 2023, System Era announced via its blog that it has joined Devolver Digital as a first party studio. “This is an amazing milestone for both System Era and for Devolver,” the post reads, noting that this will enable the team to continue to deliver the best experiences in the team’s unique style.

The post also offers a little bit of insight into the studio’s history. Eight years ago, Devolver Digital nearly became the publisher of Astroneer. While that never eventuated, Devolver has since made a name for itself as the place to go for all things indie games, and the company’s creativity has made it a natural match for it and System Era.

While the press release doesn’t reveal much, it does note that the team will continue to work on Astroneer and that there’s a whole roadmap for 2024. Furthermore, it sounds like the developer is hard at work on another project: “Most of our team has already been working on something new and exciting.” What this could be is anyone’s guess, but there’s a good chance we’ll be hearing more about it at a future Devolver Digital press conference.

A post by MauroNL on X (formerly Twitter), has highlighted the acquisition deal of System Era Softworks. The total consideration of the deal is up to $40 million, which is to be satisfied by a combination of cash and shares. Over its lifetime, Astroneer has made $87 million in sales and has been played by 13 million people.

Shacknews has been a long-time fan of System Era, for many great reasons. It was just at the start of last year that Astroneer was released on Nintendo Switch after many long years of us asking them when the game is finally coming to Nintendo’s incredibly popular platform. It should come as no surprise that we loved our time with Astroneer on Switch. Be sure to keep it locked to Shacknews as we bring you the latest on System Era and whatever exciting things the team is working on now that it’s a first party studio at Devolver Digital.

Guides Editor

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as a Guides Editor. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler 

From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 1, 2023 1:35 AM

    Sam Chandler posted a new article, Astroneer studio joins Devolver Digital as a first party developer

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      November 1, 2023 2:31 AM

      13 million is kinda crazy

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      November 1, 2023 2:38 AM

      Congrats!

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      November 1, 2023 2:57 AM

      $87M? Bananas! Congrats!

    • reply
      November 1, 2023 8:24 AM

      Wooot!

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      November 1, 2023 9:10 AM

      He deleted but congrats anyway man!

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      November 1, 2023 9:19 AM

      holy fuck, 87 million? Congrats to those guys, and our long-lost shacker

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      November 1, 2023 9:22 AM

      oh wow so this is the next chapter - amazing

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        November 1, 2023 9:24 AM

        22 million initial consideration up to 40 million total valuation for system era - wow that's awesome

    • reply
      November 1, 2023 9:27 AM

      Congrats [deleted] 596928900!

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        November 1, 2023 9:38 AM

        LOL oh yeah I forgot he deleted :(.

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          November 1, 2023 9:45 AM

          he kinda had to. this place can be extremely risky for actual devs to share. bad things have happened. he was over here this summer and is still an extremely cool dude.

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            November 1, 2023 12:52 PM

            that sucks. one of the things i miss about the "old days" is the dev transparency. remember .plan updates? it was always fascinating to hear both the technical and the logistical decision making process around game development.

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          November 1, 2023 9:46 AM

          i remember it being a shacker but what was the username?

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        November 1, 2023 10:42 AM

        Hell of a salesman.

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          November 1, 2023 10:46 AM

          lets just say he made a lot of stops all over the world to continue his vision. he has a product that sold itself, and his nature is extremely gentle and professional.

          he didn't have to sell hard, in other words.

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      November 1, 2023 10:51 AM

      that's awesome. I remember first seeing eonix'd posts here about this new game that they were working on that involved teraforming terrain and I immediately fell in love with it. I still go back and play it from time to time, but especially when there's a new update. glad to see that it's become as successful as it is. astroneer 2 in the future maybe?

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      November 1, 2023 11:39 AM

      Wow, congrats to eonix and crew. Still have that pic he posted waaay back when he was messing with an idea for a planet exploration game. Crazy.

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        November 1, 2023 11:40 AM

        i remember that post he made as well! so happy for the dude

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      November 1, 2023 11:58 AM

      Wow, congrats to our MIA Shacker!

      Great to see a game dev successful, it's a brutal business.

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      November 1, 2023 12:56 PM

      Congrats to eonix. I remember play testing.

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      November 1, 2023 8:11 PM

      I will now buy this website with my cut

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