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Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Explore the Solar System. Mine and drop asteroids. Colonize and terraform. Lead the space race and compete with other corporations on your way to profit. Watch the expansion of human race over the centuries.
Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager is a early access, space and simulation game
developed by SpaceOps
and published by Games Operators.
Released on April 09th 2026 is available only on Windows
in 13 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese - Portugal, Turkish and Portuguese - Brazil.
It has received 1,160 reviews of which 1,020 were positive and 140 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.3 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 17.99€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager into these genres:
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System requirements
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Windows
- OS: Windows 10 / 11
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 1400 / Intel Core i5-7400
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 / AMD Radeon HD 7850
- Storage: 5 GB available space
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User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Promising start to a game. Some notes: QoL: 1. Have a hard time telling which scheduled mission is which on the map and missions screen 2. No rivals = no off-world trade 3. Orbiting & deorbiting resources and modules are manual & tedious 4. Gravity assist planning system is unintuitive 5. The allure of a simplified solar system is very strong (realistic ig) 6. Edit is basically redo with the same origin and destination 7. No production caps, resource management is an open-looped system 8. Likewise, no auto-trade 9. Rounding is really annoying Balance issues: 1. I used up all the water on 21 Lutetia. I feel like that shouldn't have been as easy to do. 2. Before fusion, electric propulsion is suspiciously efficient Tech: 1. No observation probes you can send like the real Voyager / JUICE / Cassini Huygens / Juno / Europa Clipper. I'm still not sure what Metis does other than sit there and looky pretty. 2. (1900s tech) You can buy / sell colonists 3. Waste from humans / food is voided, no such thing as recycling. Aesthetic / vanity: 1. Probes ignore terrain and fly to the centre of Mars / Deimos / Phobos, makes it real wacky looking. 2. Research dependencies are confusing, especially when they span different categories. If they make this look like Factorio's it would be simpler and easier to understand. 3. Instead of nuking an asteroid something like DART would be cool as well
One Line Review: I work at a space logistics provider, this is everything I want my job to be in 30 years. Really fun and tickles all the spreadsheet simulator keys I love. There are some persistent and annoying bugs at present, but they seem to be being resolved quickly. There is a lack of story currently as well, but that is to be expected as this is early access. If you are hesitant to pay for a game until it's done that's understandable and I would hold off if that was my attitude, but if you're curious at least try the demo. If you have the stomach for early access games I HIGHLY recommend this one.
An amazing management game with enough depth to keep me engaged for a while. There really is nothing else like this as far as space sims go. It is abstract where it should be. People, structures, resources are all just numbers. It is also beautiful to look at though. The ships and planets look suitably impressive, the objects you are focused on are always in view. I like that menus do not take up the entire screen. You will spend 90% of your time in them but it helps to have a nice looking planet or moon with an imposing gas giant in the background. I love how Mars specifically changes over time as more colonists live there, with the planet becoming more blanketed in light you can see at night and eventually water from terraforming. I do not agree with some of the other reviews here saying that every object should be as true to life as possible when it comes to resources/self-sustainability. I love the progression curve of unlocking a new technology and using that to get resources from somewhere previously too hard to reach. If Luna/Asteroids had all the materials you would ever need then there would be no good reason to keep expanding, so some suspension of disbelief is warranted there. A lot of my fun came from discovering a new source of highly-needed materials and setting up a colony/production chain that rewarded me more materials that I could ship back, leading to more problems to solve. Later on those initial places you settle like Luna become very valuable again once you unlock the ability to harvest their rarer resources. That is not to say some rebalancing of resources isn't needed though. For instance I send probes to every single asteroid I knew had metal and only 2 had resource deposits even worth going there for. I get that they are there mostly for the late game to drop into other planets for resource bumps but it is frustrating to have the game tell you to explore/mine asteroids only for there to really only be 3/4 worth colonizing. By far the biggest fault of the experience is the lack of automation and other quality of life improvements. More than any other feature the devs are working on I think this really should be top priority. The content is already there for something I could play for many more hours, but these issues are what might stop me from coming back. Automation as it stands is limited to "cyclical missions" where you can choose 2 locations, ships of the same type, the resource to transport there and back. Lets take one example where what could be a satisfying production chain to solve, instead unravels quickly. I have a colony on an asteroid that produces metal and I want to automatically send a fusion ship there with supplies and ship back metal. The supplies are planet side so I need a launch vehicle to get it to the ship, and the ship will take as many supplies as it can fit before leaving, draining the entire colony of food. The fuel the ship needs is in orbit, so it cannot access it for the mission. There is no fuel at the asteroid, but I cannot tell the ship to bring enough for a return journey. The supplies need to return to the planets orbit, not planet-side but this is not an option. I can select the fastest or most efficient journey, but fastest will consume every last drop of fuel, and most efficient will take 20 years to get there, there is no in between. There are a thousand other things I could speak to on this, one of the most frustrating being not being able to queue a one time to orbit mission for a launcher already occupied with a cyclical mission. You quickly realize the best way manage everything is not bother with any automation that involves interplanetary missions; planet to orbit/moon work ok even though they stop working randomly on occasion. I wish more of my time was spent planning/strategizing and not sending missions manually back and forth to grab supplies. Overall, a very captivating game that with some polish will get it to where I would love it to be
This game is a ton of fun. There is some confusion about what the game is and is not, and admittedly part of that may stem from the Devs not really knowing which direction they want to go quite yet. For now, here's the situation. WHAT THE GAME IS: You are running a space trucking company. Your job is to take resources currently made on Earth, and transform them into ships to take people to other planets...where mining and manufacturing resources is cheaper, and easier to send into orbit. This helps you expand to other places. Earth is too costly and too difficult to get materials into orbit, meaning you will go bankrupt quickly if you do not depart the planet. WHAT THE GAME IS NOT: It is not, chiefly, an exploration game. You WILL be exploring, and you WILL be sending probes to various places to check its habitability. But the goal is to find habitable places and focus your limited resources there rather than to boldly go wherever you desire. It is also not a tycoon game. You WILL be selling items to other companies, but that's for survival and not to "win." (Side note: Do not start a game without rival companies, you'll need someone to sell to or you'll be broke within a decade. Don't ask how I know.) IS IT FUN: Yes. Absolutely. It takes forever to build up resources and go places, but when you do, the sense of accomplishment is fabulous. You sit down with the goal of getting Metals to the moon, and seven hours later you're landing ships on Mars and trying to figure out how to get Carbon there so you can grow food for your colonists and you realize you haven't fed yourself all day. There are several bugs that plague the game now, which is not unusual for early access. Devs have been exceptionally active on the forums and in addressing them. They are accepting of feedback which will surely help iron out the long-term direction of the game, but even right now, it's a ton of fun at a low price. Pick it up and meet me on Titan.
Quite fun space game so far. Played the demo and decided to buy the full game. Pros: - Very fun. Setting up infrastructure around the solar system has very real consequences in the game and getting proper flows of materials is very important. - I think the game experience is done fairly well too for near-future Sci-Fi. Orbital transfers, nuclear spaceships, slowly building out colonies. The solar system visuals add a lot here as well. - The game very heavily rewards forward thinking & planning. Getting around beyond Luna takes months or even years, so you have to be careful. Perhaps bringing a radioisotope generator to Mars rather than relying on solar is a good idea? Research takes a while and while a lot of techs don't do a whole lot, the ones that do can open up entire new possibilities. - The Contracts system is basically the tutorial. So even though there's a decent amount going on, it basically gives you a guide to progressing to the next step. And honestly it's the right way to do a tutorial. You hop right into playing the game instead of reading some guide or getting overly hand-held. It does feel a little punishing to neglect the contracts given that they give you so much money, but even being rather aggressive in my second playthrough I didn't run out of money (though came close). Cons: - More QOL features are absolutely necessary. It takes like 12-15 clicks to send a spaceship anywhere. The first few times it's really great, but the 200th time it's getting really grating whenever I need to send 200 tons of metal, 20 tons of rare earths, and a few other choice items to Luna. Pro-tip: Send your materials up to Earth Orbit with your 800 ton capacity launchers and then use spaceships to move stuff around. Because otherwise you're limited to 100-150 ton transfers at a time. There are also things where I need X materials for Y building but I have to go back and check every time and I can't have it pulled up on a different menu. Combined with 15 clicks to launch one craft and it gets pretty bad. There are repeated missions but they don't seem to allow you to define specifically what amounts to carry of each item and also drag-and-drop resources to start a route but again it's like 10 clicks. - There are two music tracks in the game (one for the main menu and one for the game itself). And it gets a little repetitive after a while especially since it's like a 2 maybe 2.5 minute loop? Not a huge deal though. - Game is obviously incomplete. People say "it's basically a demo" but I think people expect a lot from demos. I played the demo first and it ends after you get humans on Mars. There appears to be a decent amount of content, but it's obviously unfinished. Not really unexpected, but do expect things to be unfinished. - There is a lack of polish. Typos, additional commas where they needn't be, so on so forth. Additional tooltips in certain places would be nice (or more info). UI navigation can be sometimes a little difficult (especially on the location screen when you have a lot going on, like on Earth). - AI doesn't appear too great. They were well behind my cadence when I first tried the demo and just offered to buy like 10 tons of rare metals on Mars for like 2 million dollars. There also doesn't seem to be much interaction with the AI other than said trading and also resource consumption of the same deposits. Additional ways that the AIs would be relevant would be nice, because for the moment they're kinda set-dressing. There are a lot of nitpicky issues I have with this so far, but because of how much I've enjoyed it I give it a positive rating. Probably a 7.5/10. Great concept, decent enough execution. I'd recommend anyone thinking of buying it to play the demo, and if they have fun, go ahead and buy it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager is currently priced at 17.99€ on Steam.
No, Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 17.99€ on Steam.
Yes, Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager received 1,020 positive votes out of a total of 1,160 achieving a rating of 8.34.
😎
Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager was developed by SpaceOps and published by Games Operators.
Yes, Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager is playable and fully supported on Windows.
No, Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager is not playable on MacOS.
No, Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager is not playable on Linux.
Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager is a single-player game.
No, Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager does not currently offer any DLC.
No, Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
No, Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager does not support Steam Remote Play.
Yes, Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager.
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 09 July 2026 14:20 UTC |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 08 July 2026 08:46 UTC |
| Steam price | 13 July 2026 18:48 UTC |
| Steam reviews | 12 July 2026 11:47 UTC |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Solar Expanse - Space Exploration Manager compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
165
Developer
SpaceOps
Publisher
Games Operators
Release
09 Apr 2026
Platforms