Dean Hall’s Icarus Lands on Consoles in 2026, Complete with the New Frontiers Expansion

Four years after its turbulent PC debut, Dean Hall’s survival game Icarus is finally coming to consoles. The Icarus Release Date has been set for the first quarter of 2026, when the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions will arrive with the full suite of post-launch expansions and a refined technical foundation. The announcement was made during this week’s Galaxies Showcase, alongside a new trailer revealing the game’s visual and performance upgrades for console hardware.

The ports are being handled by Grip Studios in the Czech Republic, a team known for its work on Mafia: The Old Country and Conan Exiles. RocketWerkz, Hall’s New Zealand-based studio, remains focused on PC development, while Grip’s parallel production has allowed the console version to evolve independently rather than as a scaled-down adaptation.

Hall described the split as essential to preserving each version’s identity.

“I wanted the console version to be the best console version that could be, and I wanted the PC version to be the best version it could be,” he said. “That means there are some content differences and some of the content on the console was packed differently.” — Dean Hall

As a result, cross-play will not be supported. The decision stems from fundamental disparities in data structure and update cadence between the two editions. Hall acknowledged that the incompatibility “was unfortunately one of those casualties,” but emphasized the benefit of letting each platform advance without limitation.

For players who first met Icarus on PC, the upcoming release represents a second life for a game that began with high ambition and uneven execution. When it launched on Steam in 2021, Icarus drew praise for its concept—short, high-stakes expeditions on an alien planet—but criticism for technical instability and pacing issues. Over time, RocketWerkz rebuilt much of its infrastructure, releasing expansions such as Styx, Arctic Expanse, and New Frontiers, which transformed it into a far more complete survival experience.

Console players will receive the definitive version from day one.

The world of Icarus is an unrelenting frontier: a planet that once promised humanity salvation through terraforming, only to reject its would-be settlers. Oxygen scarcity, volatile storms, and hostile wildlife define every descent to the surface. Each session tasks up to eight players—four in the console version—with gathering resources, crafting shelter, and retrieving rare exotics before returning to orbit.

ICARUS: Console Edition features:

• An alien planet that fights back: every ecosystem, from storm-battered valleys to irradiated swamps, pushes players to the brink.
• Explore solo or cooperatively: up to four players can drop together into the same hostile world.
• Two massive maps: includes the original 64 km² region plus Prometheus, the 64 km² non-terraformed expanse introduced in the New Frontiers Expansion.
• Expanded progression: hundreds of craftable items, permanent upgrades forged from exotic matter, and new technological tiers.
• New threats and discoveries: mutated wildlife, ridable mounts, and untapped resources unique to Prometheus.

The inclusion of New Frontiers at launch is particularly significant. It broadens the terrain to 128 square kilometers and introduces six missions tied to a single story arc, deepening the sense of planetary history that once sat in the game’s margins. Grip Studios confirmed that all these features have been integrated from the outset, rather than through later updates, giving the console version parity with the most complete PC build.

Despite its cooperative focus, Icarus remains firmly PvE-oriented. The game’s rhythm leans on preparation, resource management, and environmental awareness more than direct conflict. Its atmosphere—cold, vast, and intermittently serene—owes as much to procedural unpredictability as to its deliberate pacing.

The absence of cross-play may disappoint players hoping for shared worlds between PC and console, yet the decision underscores RocketWerkz’s effort to treat each system on its own technical and creative terms. The addition of native controller support, one of the community’s longest-standing requests, will benefit all platforms in the process.

As 2026 approaches, Icarus stands to reach a broader audience than ever before. For Dean Hall, whose DayZ established the survival genre’s modern vocabulary, this marks a continuation rather than a reinvention—another experiment in how isolation, cooperation, and failure can coexist within the same hostile world.