The drop pod screams into the planet’s atmosphere at hypersonic speed, turning the air outside into molten plasma, signaling your imminent arrival. But your thoughts are focused on something else: the promise of priceless exotic matter found on the extraterrestrial surface below… and the deadly threats you’ll face until you extract back to orbit.
And so begins another trip to the violently hostile world of Wolf 1061ca aka Icarus, in Icarus: Console Edition, which lands tomorrow on Xbox Series X|S.
A New Type of Survival Game
From the mind of legendary survival game developer, Dean Hall (DayZ, Kitten Space Agency), Icarus: Console Edition brings an experience like no other in the genre. It’s also been fully adapted by Grip Studios for Xbox Series X|S, with controller-first input, streamlined UI navigation, and performance tuning designed for couch play.
Originally developed for PC and launched in 2021, Hall and his Rocketwerkz studio approached its design from a unique angle, asking: What if survival wasn’t about building a forever-home, but about how much you could achieve before the planet inevitably killed you?
Over the last several years, that idea has evolved alongside its PC community. Regular updates, new biomes, expanded tech trees, and expansions have steadily shaped the game into a deep and richly replayable survival experience, one built around mastery, planning, and risk, rather than permanence.
At the heart of Icarus is its session-based extraction structure — a design choice that fundamentally changes how survival gameplay feels. As you orbital drop onto a world broken by humanity’s failed terraforming experiment, you – and up to three other prospectors – will have to build, craft, and hunt to survive, before sourcing and extracting its riches and getting out alive… where after upgrading your items you’ll have to repeat the cycle all over again.
Each mission begins the same way: an orbital drop onto the planet’s surface with limited supplies and a clear objective. From there, the clock starts ticking. Storms intensify, temperatures plummet, predators grow bolder, and the environment itself becomes increasingly hostile. This isn’t about battling aggressive fauna or staving off hunger… this is a fight for survival against the very planet itself, one that seemingly wants you gone.
Progress, however, isn’t erased. Instead of persistent bases, Icarus: Console Edition focuses on persistent knowledge and technology. Each successful extraction feeds into long-term progression, unlocking new tools, blueprints, and equipment that make future drops more ambitious — and more dangerous.
Icarus: Console Edition brings the very best of the game to Xbox for the very first time. In addition to the base experience featuring the 64km2 of the Earth-like regions of Styx and Olympus, it includes the New Frontiers Expansion, doubling the size of the game world to 128km2 by introducing the previously heavily restricted, and even deadlier, Prometheus region.
A Strange New World
The twisted landscapes of Prometheus provide more than just opportunities to extract more exotic matter. Dark secrets lurk in the region’s shadows, waiting to emerge from the blackness…
The New Frontiers Expansion, which introduces Prometheus, enriches the lore of Icarus: Console Edition, with a series of six chained missions that sees you chase a mysterious whistleblower deeper into the zone, and closer to what the UDA megacorp that failed to terraform the planet has been hiding.
It’s a dramatic expansion to the Icarus experience, with over 100 additional items to craft, 30 new workshop items, new building materials, a wildly volatile – and even more valuable – exotic only found in the region, together with whole new building tiers… and of course, new threats from the planet’s indigenous creatures that are ready to pounce on any unsuspecting prospector.
Tips & Tricks for New Prospectors
Choose early objectives carefully
Early missions are designed to teach Icarus’s systems. Focus on objectives that reward workshop unlocks rather than rushing into high-risk drops.
Build for the weather, not the wildlife
Predators are dangerous, but storms are often deadlier. Shelter placement and insulation matter more than weapons early on.
Always plan your extraction
Running out of time is the most common way new players fail. Start heading to your drop ship earlier than you think; the planet’s violence storms escalate fast.
Don’t overbuild
Since most structures don’t persist between missions, efficiency matters more than permanence. Build only what helps you survive and complete objectives.
Learn the base biomes before tackling Prometheus
Prometheus introduces more volatile systems and rarer resources. Master the base regions before venturing into the expansion’s harsher environments.
