Jump Space hit Early Access on September 19, 2025, and immediately exploded beyond expectations. The co-op spaceship shooter from Keepsake Games reached over 1 million wishlists before launch and sold more than 500,000 copies within weeks. Players couldn’t get enough of the premise where you and three friends crew a spaceship, seamlessly transitioning from piloting to spacewalks to intense ground combat. But massive success revealed something developers always fear, their game wasn’t ready for this many players.
Crashes plagued certain systems. Performance tanked on hardware configurations the small team never tested. Cloud saves corrupted, wiping hours of progress. The surge exposed every weakness in the foundation. Now instead of rolling out flashy new content to capitalize on momentum, Keepsake Games is fighting fires (sometimes literally, given the in-game firefighting mechanics) to stabilize Jump Space before the holiday season when even more players will arrive.
Deep Rock Galactic Meets Sea of Thieves in Space
The core concept immediately resonates with co-op fans. Jump Space combines Deep Rock Galactic’s mission structure with Sea of Thieves’ ship crewing mechanics, all wrapped in a sci-fi package. One to four players form a crew, accept missions from their hangar hub, then blast off to complete objectives across the galaxy. You’ll plunder salvage, fight enemy factions, explore planets, and desperately try to keep your ship functional when everything goes wrong simultaneously.
What sets Jump Space apart is the seamless role-switching. You’re not locked into being the pilot or engineer for the entire mission. Players fluidly transition between manning turrets, repairing damaged systems, piloting the ship through combat, and descending to planetary surfaces for ground missions. When an enemy ship attacks, someone jumps to piloting while others man weapons stations. When fire breaks out in engineering, whoever’s closest grabs the extinguisher. This dynamic crew coordination creates emergent moments that scripted games can’t replicate.
Buddy Bot Saves Solo Players
Recognizing not everyone has three friends available constantly, Keepsake included Buddy, an AI companion that competently handles repairs, reloads ammunition, crews weapon systems, and even joins ground expeditions. For solo or duo players, Buddy transforms from nice-to-have into essential crew member. The upcoming December update adds a command wheel letting players direct Buddy’s actions more precisely, addressing complaints that he sometimes chose chaotic priorities.
Buddy’s competence surprised players expecting useless AI. He dynamically responds to ship needs, prioritizing critical repairs during combat and efficiently managing systems during downtime. The challenge is communicating what you need when things go sideways fast. The command wheel should solve this, letting you tell Buddy to focus on shields, prioritize weapon reloading, or stick with you during ground combat instead of making his own decisions.
The Price of Success
Jump Space’s explosive launch overwhelmed Keepsake’s small team. The June 2025 Steam Next Fest demo attracted over 500,000 players, generating massive hype that translated to instant Early Access success. But demo environments don’t replicate full launch conditions. Edge cases that affected tiny percentages of players suddenly impacted thousands when the playerbase exploded. Systems that seemed stable buckled under load.
Cloud saves proved particularly problematic. Players reported progress disappearing, forcing them to restart from scratch. Crashes on specific hardware configurations created situations where certain players simply couldn’t play reliably. Performance optimization that worked fine for moderate populations struggled when servers filled. These aren’t glamorous problems with flashy solutions. They require tedious debugging, system rewrites, and infrastructure improvements that don’t generate exciting marketing material.
December Update Focuses on Systems
The upcoming December update balances stabilization work with player-requested features. The mission rewards rework ensures failed or abandoned missions still grant 75% of salvage rewards plus XP and credits from completed jumps. Previously, difficult runs that ended in failure felt like total losses, punishing players for attempting challenging content. The new system respects time investment even when objectives aren’t completed.
The new Augments system introduces equipable player perks for permanent build choices. Increased HP, modified weapon behaviors, damage boosts after kills, these persistent upgrades add RPG-style progression beyond ship improvements. Players can specialize their characters for specific roles, creating diversity in how four-person crews distribute capabilities. The point-based system means choosing between multiple desirable perks rather than equipping everything simultaneously.
Endless Waves Mode Incoming
The new Endless Waves mission type adds ground-based arena defense where crews fight continuous enemy waves while crafting ammo and medbots on the fly. Players can extract whenever they want, creating risk-reward decisions about pushing for better rewards versus taking guaranteed earnings. This addresses requests for content focused purely on combat without complex mission objectives, providing variety for crews who just want to shoot aliens.
Holiday decorations and a seasonal event will make the hangar hub feel more vibrant and lived-in. These touches might seem frivolous when crashes remain unresolved, but they’re important for player retention and community engagement. Games need personality beyond functional systems, and letting players customize their home base creates investment that keeps them returning between missions.
From Four Friends to Professional Studio
Jump Space started as a project from four friends with day jobs, gradually evolving as success allowed them to commit full-time. Creative director Filip Coulianos told Game Market that the project wasn’t supposed to be this grand from the beginning. The team dreamed bigger as positive reception encouraged ambition, but that meant building infrastructure on foundations designed for smaller scope.
The 500,000+ sales at 19.99 dollars generated substantial revenue, letting Keepsake expand beyond the original quartet. New hires focus on engineering resources for crashes, performance optimization, and reliability improvements. It’s unglamorous work that players don’t see directly, but it’s absolutely essential for sustainable growth. Without stability, no amount of cool content will retain frustrated players who can’t reliably finish missions.
Competitive Pricing Strategy
Keepsake positioned Jump Space at 19.99 dollars for Early Access, competitive compared to similar co-op titles. Deep Rock Galactic launched at 29.99, though it’s frequently discounted. The team confirmed Jump Space won’t participate in the Steam Autumn Sale, preserving value for early adopters. Whether the price increases for full release remains undecided, but the current pricing removes barriers for curious players while funding ongoing development.
The game launched on both Steam and Xbox Series X or S simultaneously, unusual for Early Access titles that typically focus on PC first. Console availability expands the potential audience significantly, though it also means supporting multiple platforms during the most unstable development period. The cross-platform approach demonstrates confidence in the foundation despite acknowledged stability issues.
Very Positive Despite Problems
Jump Space maintains a Very Positive rating on Steam across both recent and overall reviews despite the technical issues. Players acknowledge the problems but see the potential underneath. The core gameplay loop of crewing a ship, completing missions, and upgrading your vessel works well when everything functions properly. Enthusiastic community response suggests players will stick around if Keepsake can resolve the stability concerns.
YouTuber Space Tomato Gaming noted Jump Space sold 250,000 copies in just four days, calling it better than expected with Friday night popcorn space game energy the community has been missing. The momentum of successful Early Access launches can carry games through rocky periods if developers communicate transparently and deliver on improvement promises. Keepsake’s regular updates and realistic timelines build trust that stability will come.
The Road Ahead
Keepsake aims to stabilize Jump Space by Christmas when gift-givers and holiday sales will bring fresh players. New mission types, deeper progression systems, and quality-of-life improvements fill the roadmap once engineering resources aren’t consumed by crash fixes. The developers acknowledge that unglamorous stability work isn’t exciting to announce, but they’re prioritizing foundation over flash, exactly the right choice for Early Access sustainability.
Future updates will add more augmentations throughout 2026, expanding build diversity. Pilot upgrades weren’t confirmed for December but remain on the roadmap. The development approach focuses on iterative improvements rather than massive content drops, ensuring each addition works properly before moving forward. This measured pace might frustrate players wanting instant gratification, but it’s healthier long-term than releasing broken features to meet arbitrary deadlines.
FAQs
What is Jump Space?
Jump Space is a mission-based co-op PvE first-person shooter for 1-4 players where you crew a spaceship. Players seamlessly transition from piloting and managing ship systems to ground combat and spacewalks while completing objectives across the galaxy. It launched in Early Access on September 19, 2025.
How many copies has Jump Space sold?
Jump Space has sold over 500,000 copies since launching in Early Access. It sold 250,000 copies in the first four days and reached over 1 million wishlists before launch. The game maintains Very Positive reviews on Steam despite technical issues.
Can you play Jump Space solo?
Yes, Jump Space is fully playable solo with Buddy Bot, an AI companion that handles repairs, reloads, crews weapons, and joins ground missions. The upcoming December update adds a command wheel to give players more control over Buddy’s actions, making solo play more strategic.
How much does Jump Space cost?
Jump Space costs 19.99 dollars, 16.75 pounds, or 19.50 euros for Early Access. The developers confirmed it won’t be included in the Steam Autumn Sale and haven’t decided if the price will change for full release. It’s available on Steam and Xbox Series X or S.
Is Jump Space like Deep Rock Galactic?
Jump Space shares similarities with Deep Rock Galactic’s mission structure and co-op focus but adds spaceship crewing mechanics similar to Sea of Thieves. Players complete missions from a hangar hub, upgrade their ship with rewards, and work together to survive. The developers compare it more to DRG than to open-universe games like PULSAR Lost Colony.
What’s in the December 2025 update?
The December update includes a mission rewards rework that gives 75% rewards for failed missions, a new Augments system with equipable perks, Buddy Bot command wheel, Endless Waves arena mode, holiday event with hangar decorations, plus extensive crash fixes and performance improvements.
What platforms is Jump Space on?
Jump Space is available on PC via Steam and Xbox Series X or S. The simultaneous launch on console and PC is unusual for Early Access titles but expands the potential playerbase significantly during the development period.
Stabilize First, Shine Later
Jump Space’s trajectory mirrors many Early Access success stories where explosive popularity reveals every crack in the foundation. The difference between games that survive this crucible and those that crumble comes down to developer response. Keepsake Games chose the harder path of fixing what’s broken before chasing viral moments with flashy content. It’s the right call, even if it’s not the exciting one. Players will forgive technical issues during Early Access if they see consistent progress toward stability. What they won’t forgive is being ignored while developers chase the next shiny feature. With stabilization targeted for Christmas and meaningful content updates planned for 2026, Jump Space has the roadmap to become the spaceship co-op game fans have been craving. It just needs to survive the turbulence first.