Star Conflict

Star Conflict
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	StarGem Inc.
Publisher	Gaijin Entertainment
Platform	Oculus Rift (Platform)
Device	DK1, DK2
Operating System	Windows, Mac, Linux
Type	Full Game
Genre	Shooter, Action/Adventure
Input Device	Keyboard, Mouse, Gamepad
Game Mode	Multi-Player, Co-Op
Release Date	September 4, 2014 (Oculus Share listing and DK2 support); February 27, 2013 (Steam)
Price	Free-to-play
App Store	Oculus Share, Steam
Website	http://star-conflict.com

See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Star Conflict is a free-to-play massively multiplayer space combat game developed by Star Gem Inc. and published by Gaijin Entertainment for Windows, macOS and Linux. Players fly spaceships in player-versus-player battles and in player-versus-environment missions, alone or in groups. It is a VR App for the Oculus Rift (Platform): an Oculus Rift mode for the Oculus Rift DK1 was added in April 2014, and support for the Oculus Rift DK2 with positional tracking followed with version 1.0 on 4 September 2014. The game was also listed on Oculus Share, with DK1 and DK2 as the supported Rift versions.

The VR mode had native support on all three of the game's desktop operating systems. After a shutdown announced in April 2026, the developers scheduled the official servers to close at 10:00 GMT on 9 October 2026, with a "Community Edition" that runs on a local server to be released on Steam afterwards.

Reviewed 9 October 2026. Rift DK1/DK2 support dates and features, VR patch notes, Oculus Share listing and requirements, setup steps, development and release timeline, 2026 shutdown and Community Edition schedule, Metacritic score and all cited sources. About review dates.

Features

Star Conflict is set in Sector 1337, a remote region of the galaxy where mercenaries search the ruins of an alien civilization, destroyed by a mysterious Cataclysm, for artifacts. The Steam store page describes PvP battles across dozens of space locations, PvE missions and quests for groups or solo players, a sandbox mode, corporation battles for territory, more than a hundred ships, nine tactical roles, and the production of modules and ships. Version 1.0 added "Invasion Mode", in which parties of four players explore open space areas, complete quests, fight other players and alien ships, and collect materials to craft armor, weapons and new ships.

Virtual reality mode

Gaijin Entertainment described the Rift mode as giving "full stereoscopic 3D with a 360-degree panoramic view of deep space". In a developer diary previewing update 0.10.0, the studio said the Rift could be switched on and off instantly, without restarting the game or installing additional components. The diary also confirmed that the Rift would be supported on Windows, Mac and Linux.

For the DK2, the studio's announcement listed the headset's 960x1080 per-eye resolution, its gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer, and precise head position tracking. In an article published the day after version 1.0, the Spanish VR site Real o Virtual reported that the game held a steady 75 frames per second with vsync on a GeForce GTX 670, that the Rift settings include a supersampling option, and that head tracking was smooth, with the DK2's higher resolution and low persistence improving on the DK1 version. The site also noted that the camera then sat outside and above the ship rather than inside a cockpit, so positional tracking added little; a cockpit view was planned but had no date.

Later patches changed the VR mode several times:

Update	Date	VR changes
0.10.0	April 2014	Full Oculus Rift support with minor display bug fixes, on Windows, Mac and Linux
1.0	4 September 2014	Oculus Rift DK2 support with positional tracking
1.0.9	4 December 2014	Fixed the HUD in Invasion mode and the crosshairs for the Rift
1.0.14	29 January 2015	Option to copy the Rift display to a separate window on the main screen; camera can move along the ship hull with the mouse wheel; upgraded to Oculus SDK 0.4.4 on all platforms, and players had to update their SDK to 0.4.4 for the Rift to work properly

System Requirements

The Oculus Share listing (as archived in April 2015) gave these requirements:

Component	Minimum	Recommended
OS	Windows XP SP3	Windows 7 x64
Processor	2.0 GHz Intel Pentium-4 / AMD Athlon II	2.3 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo / AMD Athlon64 X2 or better
Memory	1 GB RAM	2 GB RAM
Video card	512 MB NVidia / AMD Radeon / Intel (HD 3000, HD 4000) with support for Pixel Shader 3.0	1 GB NVidia GeForce 650 / AMD Radeon HD 5750 / Intel HD 4000 and newer
Storage	2 GB	2 GB
Other	Broadband Internet connection	Broadband Internet connection

The current Steam listing requires Windows 10, 6 GB of RAM and 8.5 GB of disk space on Windows, with macOS (Snow Leopard minimum) and Linux (Ubuntu 13.04 or later, or SteamOS) versions also listed.

Setup Instructions

According to Real o Virtual, the Rift mode is enabled from the game's options menu (opened with Esc or the gear icon on the main menu): in the settings, the Oculus Rift submenu has an "Enable Oculus Rift" checkbox, followed by Apply. If the game still starts in normal, unsplit view, the Scroll Lock key is the default toggle for the Oculus mode, and the Home key resets the view orientation. The site wrote that the game can be played with a joystick or with keyboard and mouse, and recommended keyboard and mouse for more precise aiming. The Oculus Share listing named keyboard, mouse and gamepad as supported controllers.

Development

Star Gem Inc. was founded in 2011. According to the studio's 2026 retrospective, the first news about the project appeared on 14 September 2011, closed beta testing began on 11 April 2012, open beta started on 24 July 2012, the game was released on Steam on 27 February 2013, and beta testing ended with update 1.0 on 4 September 2014.

Rift support and the Linux version were released in the same week in April 2014, around the game's two-year anniversary; at that point the studio said Star Conflict had passed one million players. Stanislav Skorb, director of Star Gem Inc., said: "We've been working with Oculus Rift for several months and we think that the ability to immerse yourself in virtual reality is absolutely essential for a space action game." The Linux version reached Steam on 2 April 2014.

Dreadnoughts, described by the studio at the 1.0 launch as "large corporate battleships", were introduced on 26 March 2015. On 20 May 2015 the studio released Star Conflict Oculus Demo Dreadnought Battle, a watch-only demo of a dreadnought battle built for the Rift that also worked without a headset. It was distributed through Oculus Share and the official website.

Release

Milestone	Date	Notes
Closed beta	11 April 2012
Open beta	24 July 2012
Steam release	27 February 2013	Free-to-play
Linux version and Oculus Rift mode (DK1)	April 2014	Two-year anniversary update
Version 1.0 and DK2 support	4 September 2014	Also the release date on the Oculus Share listing
Star Conflict Oculus Demo Dreadnought Battle	20 May 2015	Separate Rift demo
Shutdown announced	16 April 2026	Originally set for 10 October 2026
New account registration closed	14 May 2026
Monetization disabled (update 1.14.10)	1 June 2026
Official servers shut down	9 October 2026, 10:00 GMT (scheduled)	Moved forward one day to release the Community Edition sooner

Shutdown

On 16 April 2026 the developers announced that Star Conflict would close, citing "technical limitations, rising infrastructure costs, and a decline in the active player base". In-game purchases ended on 1 June 2026 with update 1.14.10, and the studio ran free in-game events during the final summer through which players could obtain paid content, including nearly all ships. The studio's farewell post counted 4.3 million accounts, more than 170 updates, 311 ships and 90 locations over fourteen years.

The Community Edition lets players run their own local server with the game's modes, matchmaking, chat, corporations and economy, and connect to remote servers; progress on the official servers does not carry over. In September 2026 the team also announced Star Conflict: Burrownauts, a roguelite mining and action game set in the same universe, planned for early 2027 and listed on Steam with Targem Games as developer and publisher.

Reception

The PC game has a Metacritic score of 75 out of 100 ("generally favorable") from 9 critic reviews. IGN Italia's review, scored 71, suggested waiting for Elite Dangerous. Of the DK2 version, Real o Virtual wrote that the game had already been a great experience on the DK1 and that it improved noticeably on the DK2.