Starsand Island Has Suddenly Been Removed from Steam

Popular life sim Starsand Island has unexpectedly disappeared from Steam, with PC gamers no longer able to buy it on that platform, but it may be available again in the near future. Starsand Island had only been available in early access for about two months before its removal from Steam, leaving potential players who were late to the party currently out of luck.

Despite a bit of a rocky start due to early bugs, Starsand Island has impressed critics, consistently earning high scores with its diversity of cozy activities, customization options, and potential for social interaction. It was also performing quite well among players on Steam, though its user score ultimately may have been artificially inflated by a Starsand Island review controversy that saw many users heaping praise on the game after only a few minutes of playtime, with the development team kindly requesting that these overly positive reviewers cease their actions.

Starsand Island: All Fish & Where to Find Them

Starsand Island features dozens of different types of fish for you to catch. If you want to collect every fish, you can find a full list of them here.

Starsand Island Devs Explain Why it was Delisted from Steam

Now a new controversy has arisen, with the removal of Starsand Island from Steam on April 9, just two days shy of the game completing its second full month in early access. According to a Twitter post from the publisher and developer, Seed Sparkle Lab, the delisting was initiated by Steam over copyright issues surrounding one of Starsand Island‘s features, with the social media team noting “core visual elements from a classic title” were inadvertently included in one particular minigame during the game’s planning phase and were not removed before Starsand Island‘s early access launch. The post does not identify the minigame in question, but it states that the delisting from Steam is only temporary, and the development team has already submitted a corrected build for review. As long as Steam approves of the new game build, it should be available for purchase and play on Steam once again.

Those who have already begun their journey in the game shouldn’t need to worry about potentially losing their progress. Seed Sparkle Lab assures players that once the game is available on Steam again, their Starsand Island save data will carry over to the new build, though it will require players to perform an update first. The next build should support any progress players have made and will still allow them to access to any previously included in-game assets, except for the ones that are being removed over the copyright dispute.

How Starsand Island's Romance Options Hold Up to Stardew Valley

Additionally, Seed Sparkle Labs is offering compensation to its fans as an apology for the mistake, giving them access to a free Starsand Island costume, the new Shining Star Outfit Set. This compensation item will be released in the form of a free DLC that will be accessible to all players on Steam, and the team anticipates that it will become available within seven business days of the delisting, which would likely fall on April 20. That early release date for the DLC seems to be an optimistic outlook for the game’s delisting to be reversed, considering how soon it’s coming up. The team will also be increasing its internal review activities in hopes of preventing a similar incident from happening in the future.

Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)

Curiously, the copyright dispute does not seem to have affected the availability of the game on Xbox. The early access version of Starsand Island is available on Xbox Series X/S, and its current listing on the Microsoft Store is still active. Additionally, it appears to still be accessible among the collection of cozy games on Xbox Game Pass. Starsand Island is planned for a full release that also includes support on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2, with a projected release window of summer 2026.