on dismantling abandoned cargo ships. Creative director Elliot Hudson described it as "the shadowy side of the ship industry" and that it inspired the game's theme of exploitation and the concept of playing as a "blue-collar worker". According to the team, it was important for the tools to feel like "heavy industrial equipment" rather than "weapons", so that the gameplay matches with the identity of the player character, who is a worker rather than a soldier. As a result, a weapon that can unleash a "lateral shockwave effect" was removed from the game. Initially, the team handcrafted all the ships players can explore in the game. However, as they wanted to release the game into early access and felt that releasing a short game would not be ideal, they decided to adopt a "pseudo-procedurally generated" in order to extend the game's replayability. The game was officially announced on February 19, 2020 for PC. Publisher Focus Home Interactive also announced that the game would be released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Hardspace: Shipbreaker was released on Steam's early access program on June 16, 2020. The game left early access on May 24, 2022. After the full release it was added to game subscription and cloud streaming service from Microsoft, Xbox Game Pass. Versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S were released on September 20, 2022. Reception Hardspace: Shipbreaker received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. PC Gamer heavily praised the gameplay and its themes of labor exploitation, writing, "Shipbreaker's derelicts are simply a delight to break apart, and there's a real joy to slowly peeling apart what looks at first glance to be a single, solid object until there's nothing left but dust and loose trash." Digital Trends gave the game an 8 out of 10, and commended its shipbreaking-centric gameplay loop, long-term progression, and vital narrative, but took minor issue with the occasionally nauseating zero-G gameplay and its repetitive nature. Screen Rant gave the title 4 stars out of 5 and praised the engaging nature of the shipbreaking gameplay loop while noting a minor lack of polish. Zoey Handley of Destructoid wrote, "Hardspace: Shipbreaker is successful in just about everything it attempts. Not only is its gameplay extremely replayable and constantly satisfying, but it also manages to stack it all on a very solid narrative foundation." Dan Stapleton of IGN was more critical of the game's