“It taps into the same psychology as real survival training: the need to test yourself, to see if you can do better with what you’ve learned,” says Dean Hall, answering my question about what it is about Icarus: Console Edition’s gameplay that will create a “just one more run” compulsion for players. And he should know. After all, the founder and creative mind of New Zealand-based studio RocketWerkz is a master of both real-life and digital survival.
A veteran of the New Zealand armed forces, which included time with the Singaporean military, for the past 16 years Hall has become known as the godfather of the survival genre, thanks to a games portfolio that includes the iconic DayZ and more recently Icarus, which is coming to Xbox for the first time in early 2026 as Icarus: Console Edition, courtesy of Grip Studios.
Taking Survival to the Stars
Set in a future where humanity journeys into the stars, Icarus: Console Edition will see players – either solo or in a party of up to four – drop onto the partially terraformed eponymous planet to recover priceless exotic matter. When it launches early next year, the game will bundle both the base game and New Frontiers Expansion into one, bringing a mammoth 128 square kilometers of land across six wildly contrasting biomes for Xbox players to explore, thrive and – hopefully – survive in. “It’s the full package that we wished we could have launched on PC four years ago,” he explains. “We started with the Earth-like terraformed parts of the planet, and the New Frontiers Expansion adds the alien regions where the terraforming failed.”
These dominantly alien environments form the map of Prometheus, which not only features more extraterrestrial-like settings, but also strange – and hostile – new creatures, resources and materials, and equipment. It also introduces a storyline revealing what some of the corporate factions exploring and exploiting Icarus have been up to… (Spoilers, it probably isn’t something altruistic for humanity!)
Prior to the original PC launch of Icarus in 2021, Dean’s survival games had been Earth-based, but the far-future, intergalactic setting opened a new layer of creative conceptualizing for him and the team. “There are a lot of survival games, but with Icarus, we focused on making the environment a strong antagonist,” he says. “It takes the survival genre as you know it, and layers on deep progression through character and mount talent trees, layers in missions to pull you through – even in open-world – and adds storms as a continuous tensor to the experience.”
Observe, Orient, Decide, Act
Dropping onto an alien planet would be a shock and awe experience for even the most hardened of pioneers, but Hall explains that his advice to newbies landing on the planet’s hostile surface in Icarus: Console Edition is the same he’d give talking to new soldiers in a real-world platoon: “[I’d recommend they use] situational awareness: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.” He adds, “Icarus: Console Edition is a lot about preparation, and that’s good because some of the best systems in the game are around preparation. Build houses, explore cautiously, and take combat on your terms – not on the world’s. And be ready for changes.”
Thinking back to his time in the New Zealand Royal Air Force and New Zealand Army, he says there are similarities to be found between IRL survival and what players will experience in Icarus: Console Edition. “I think with good immersion, you can get emotional reactions that are similar to the real-life experience. This is what training in the military is about: you drill something until you respond automatically, overwriting the emotional components. I think games can be an excellent way to experience emotional ups and downs, which is what immersion in a survival game is all about.”
Hall describes graphics, gameplay, a sense of progression and a game’s environments as critical to layering that immersion into the player experience. It’s something he and the team at RocketWerkz kept in mind as they developed Icarus on PC. “As you play, you can see how we learned and adapted as time went on,” he adds.
“The whole idea with Icarus was to try and layer in reasons to continue playing a survival game, as a play session can tend to get stale after a while. This is such a shame, because you’ve built up so much. Initially, we focused on individual missions, but then figured out how to allow the chaining of those missions inside a single open-world session,” he explains. “The most fun came from weaving together the experiences in missions with a great backstory, as well as a really deep sense of progression both in the world and on your character and mounts through talent trees. This is something I really wish survival games did more of, and I think (eventually) we did very well with Icarus.” And of course from 2026, Xbox owners can experience it too, in Icarus: Console Edition.
Balancing for Both Solo and Squads
As with the original release, Icarus: Console Edition will be fully realized for both solo players and those looking to take on the planet with a group of up to seven others. Getting that balance right can be a daunting task, but it’s something that Hall planned for right from the start:
“One of our design pillars [was] that it should be fun to play alone. This is something we think many survival games drop the ball on. One thing we did just for solo players was add a Solo Talent Tree, a whole set of talents and buffs that only apply when you’re playing alone.” He shares that this levels the playing field, reducing the grind for solo players who don’t have a team backing them up.
“We really wanted your character to matter to the player, so you feel the pain when they die. [There are] multiple talent trees so you can specialize your character into hunting, building, gathering or even something like fishing. In a small group, survival becomes a team effort: dividing tasks, covering each other, and combining these skills. With a full team, you get something closer to an expedition: there’s energy, chaos, trust and that feeling of being part of a living mission.”
Coming to Xbox Series X|S a little over four years after the original game launched on PC, Hall reveals that he’s excited for the new cohort of prospectors, extraplanetary explorers and terraformers to see what he, RocketWerkz and the passionate Icarus PC player-base have built: “It took a long time, and a lot of working with the community on PC to get the game to where it is now. I’m pretty envious of Xbox gamers, who are going to be coming into Icarus: Console Edition fresh after so much iteration.”
Icarus: Console Edition is coming to Xbox Series X|S in early 2026. Wishlist now.
ICARUS: Console Edition
GRIP Studios
Land on ICARUS, a planet broken due to failed terraforming. Once meant to be humanity’s second home, it is now a hostile frontier of toxic skies, savage wildlife, and relentless storms. Every drop from orbit is a fight for survival. Build shelter, craft weapons, hunt for food, and seek your fortune in exotic matter.
Survive alone or with up to four players in this uncompromising PvE survival game from the creator of DayZ.
The New Frontiers Expansion is included from the start, transforming ICARUS: Console Edition into a larger, deadlier but more rewarding survival experience. Discover new maps, missions, creatures, and rewards.
________________________________________
A PLANET THAT FIGHTS BACK
ICARUS resists your presence; poisoned air, lightning storms that tear apart structures, wildfires that spread unchecked, and predators that stalk in the shadows. It feels like the planet itself wants to drive you back into orbit.
· With New Frontiers added from the start, you can explore two 64 km2 maps of handcrafted terrain across forests, mountains, deserts, and caves
· Harvest every tree, rock, and creature
· Adapt to extreme weather and natural disasters
________________________________________
NEW FRONTIERS INCLUDED
The Prometheus region, once sealed off by the UDA, is now open. Terraforming failed here completely, leaving raw alien landscapes intact but warped. This expansion expands ICARUS far beyond its original borders:
· New Map & biomes: Alien grasslands, volcanic wastelands of molten lava, and dangerous swamplands
· Six Narrative Missions: A chained story across Prometheus as you pursue a mysterious whistleblower for the UDA
· New Creatures: Face Needlers, Dracs, Dreadwings, and other mutated apex predators, evolved to dominate these zones
· New Exotics: Discover a volatile new exotic with unique effects on the flora, plus new exotic plants and over 30 additional workshop items
· New Items & Resources: Mine obsidian, clay, scoria, crystallised miasma, and super-cooled ice; craft 100+ new items including weapons, food, recipes, and building tiers
________________________________________
THREE WAYS TO SURVIVE
· Open World: Establish permanent bases and explore freely
· Missions: Timed contracts where extraction is everything
· Outposts: Low-pressure zones for creative building and experimentation
________________________________________
PROGRESSION & REWARD
· Tech Tree & Talents: Advance from primitive tools to advanced tech
· Specialisation: Focus as a hunter, builder, or survivalist
· Orbital Workshop: Trade exotic matter for permanent upgrades and equipment
Exotic matter remains the ultimate prize; rare, unstable, and deadly to pursue.
________________________________________
SOLO OR CO-OP
Up to four players can share each drop, combining skills and resources to endure. Prefer to go it alone? Survive solo with a Solo Talent Tree for maximum challenge.
Note: ICARUS: Console Edition does not support cross-play.
The post Gearing Up for Icarus: Dean Hall Reveals his Survival Tips and More appeared first on Xbox Wire.
