The space MMO coming in 2027: COLONIZED and its closed alpha

The space MMO we are bringing to 2027 is COLONIZED, a space survival MMORPG for PC built in Unreal Engine 5. What is planned for winter 2026-2027 is the first wave of its closed alpha (a Steam Playtest by invitation), and applications are open now. The release date of the game has not been announced. This page sets out what the alpha builds on, what is still in development and how to get a key.

What it is

COLONIZED is a space survival MMORPG for PC, built in Unreal Engine 5: one persistent online universe, planets with atmosphere and ships you can walk through. It is set in Year 47 E.A., in the Aurin system, where two factions born from the same colony fleet keep a cold peace that is starting to crack, and both are recruiting again.

What the alpha builds on

Everything in this list is in the main build today:

• Planets you walk from the ground to orbit: spherical worlds with radial gravity; outside the atmosphere, zero gravity.
• Fifteen worlds generated from their lore, with terrain from real elevation data and physics and weather of their own; they are under visual review.
• Survival with five needs, ninety crafting recipes and bases with structural integrity.
• First- and third-person combat, thirteen weapons, every shot resolved on the server with lag compensation.
• A side and a reputation: the Zenith or the Nadir, chosen once and for good, and five neutral guilds that keep score.
• Persistence on dedicated servers, with player colonies that share bases.

What is still in development, or only designed

Status	What
In development	Ship flight, landing and multi-crew; a capital ship; the Compis companion drones (finished in a development branch); world bosses and group content
Designed	An economy and trading; faction warfare, sieges and conquest
Not announced	Release date, price, system requirements, players per server, server regions

None of the items in development is promised for the alpha. What each wave includes will be announced in the alpha notes.

How it is being built

COLONIZED runs on Unreal Engine 5.8, with Nanite, Lumen and Virtual Shadow Maps, and its development build integrates NVIDIA DLSS. The whole star system fits inside Unreal’s double-precision world with compressed distances, and each body’s sphere of influence is its own server zone. The details are in how to simulate a solar system at scale and how COLONIZED builds fifteen worlds from their lore. The work moves in public on the roadmap, which reads the development tracker every 15 minutes.

The world, before the alpha

You do not need to wait for the alpha to enter the universe. The Codex records the canon entry by entry, the Aurin system in numbers has every body’s figures, and The Aurin Chronicle, a serialised novel free to read on the site, follows Year 47 from a sealed room in the Cementerio de Aura to the choice of a house.

How to get a key

1. Apply for the closed alpha with a pilot account. It is free, according to the alpha terms, for people aged 18 or over with a Steam account.
2. Share your link: each friend who completes an application moves you ten places up the list.
3. Keys go out in waves from winter 2026-2027; each wave is announced on the Discord.

How closed alphas work in general, from waves to wipes, is in how closed alphas and betas work.

Go deeper: nine tests for a space MMO, hundreds of players per server, player-driven economies and playable solar systems with Earth-sized planets.