Marauders finally speaks up after a long quiet stretch, and the plan is bigger than a normal patch

Marauders, the space-based extraction shooter that entered early access in October 2022, has finally broken its long quiet stretch. Small Impact Games said the project is being reworked at a deeper level, and the next update will open a Technical Stress Test branch for community testing.

At the moment, the game sits at just 60 players on Steam, which is still its only platform. That makes the return feel even more notable, especially for a game that once looked like it might carve out a real lane beside Escape from Tarkov in the extraction-shooter crowd.

Hey btw, remember when we did all the Marauders guides? Holy moly, that was a stretch and a half!

Tarkov in space is getting a rebuild, not a small tune-up

When Marauders first arrived in October 2022, it drew attention with a dieselpunk, alternate-history setting and a loop built around boarding ships, pushing into floating rigs and space stations, and fighting both players and AI while chasing loot and a way back home. It reached a peak of 14,332 concurrent players on Steam and picked up mixed-to-positive attention early on.

That momentum faded, and the studio’s Steam activity had been quiet for a long time. The new update changed that. In a post on Steam, Small Impact Games apologized for the silence and said it had decided to commit to a larger overhaul instead of pushing smaller updates in the meantime.

We owe you an apology for the silence.

We’ve been fully focused on the game. What started as a round of fixes grew into a much larger, necessary change and we have made the call to commit to it rather than push smaller updates in the meantime.

We’ve been reworking core systems and rebuilding mechanics that needed it. This isn’t a patch. It’s a full overhaul aimed at getting Marauders where it should be.

We don’t have a release date to share yet, and we’re not setting one until we’re confident we can hit it. What we can tell you is that the next update from us will be the Technical Stress Test branch opening for community testing.

To everyone who stuck with us, kept playing, and kept the community going. Thank you. We know it’s been a long wait, and we haven’t forgotten that.

The studio also said this is not a standard patch but a full rebuild of core systems and mechanics. It did not give a release date, so the only firm next step right now is that stress test branch.

The timing also matters. On Steam, this is the first official update since August 2024, when the team pushed the major Retribution update and wiped the platform to keep the playing field even for the players who were still active. In that sense, this really does feel like the first substantial sign of life the community has had in almost two years.

Marauders is not suddenly on the verge of becoming a giant, but it is alive, and the studio is clearly treating the project like more than a forgotten side note. If you have thoughts on where the game goes from here, tell us in the comments and join us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram.

Marauders

Developed by Small Impact Games

Become a space pirate and work solo, or in a squad of up to 3 other players to navigate a hostile battleground, survive intense combat encounters with other teams and AI opponents for invaluable loot, craft new weapons and gear, and salvage what you’ll need to survive.

• Genre: Shooter, Tactical
• Platforms: PC (Microsoft Windows)
• Modes: Multiplayer, Co-operative
• Release: 2022-10-03
• Publisher: Team17
• Age Rating: ESRB M
• IGDB Rating: 70.0/100

Steam Official Site