In case you hadn’t heard, Hardspace: Shipbreaker is preparing to land on consoles later this year. Published by Focus Entertainment, the unique first person sci-fi sim will launch on September 20, 2022, and is coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, where it will also be available on Game Pass.
Having spent a couple of years docked in Steam’s early access hangar, Hardspace: Shipbreaker has you manually taking apart space vessels and processing the materials in a zen-like fashion. With a growing array of tools at hand, you’ll cut through metal and carefully extract precious cargo, all while avoiding hazards such as flammables and electronics.
It’s immensely satisfying in a similar way to games like House Flipper or Power Wash Simulator. It helps that there’s an underlying story: an all-too-real tale of a rookie cutter grinding away to pay off debts to a megacorp. The premise may be depressingly dystopian though you’ll discover a certain chill factor to Shipbreaker as you run jobs and slowly work your way up the ranks.
Developer Blackbird Interactive hasn’t confirmed any bonus or exclusive features on PlayStation and Xbox systems. We assume it will offer the same amount of content as the base 1.0 version of Hardspace: Shipbreaker, while also touting full controller support.
Here’s what we had to say about the game in our early access review back in 2020:
Hardspace is a truly unique game we could only really compare to something like House Flipper. You are given free reign to approach each day on the job and while a lot of the gameplay involves tedious dismantling, there’s a calming sense of tranquillity to the work.
This is spliced with certain hazards and layers of strategy, thankfully. Bigger ships will require a deft touch to break apart, many of them loaded with fuel tanks, gas pipes, and other potential hazards to punish those who recklessly slice and dice. Air pressure is another consideration – if you fail to regulate the pressure inside a vessel then piercing the hull can cause devastating decompression events, spewing valuable salvage out into the void.
Source: Press Release