The developers decided to have the first few stages of the beta be Steam only. That quote I put in my post was from the Starbound website: http://playstarbound.com/regarding-steam-drm-free/. It won't be DRM-Free until the very end of the beta when updates are less frequent. Although HB should have that notice on their page to prevent confusion.

Okay, HB has this note on Starbound:

"Please note: Starbound is an Early Access Game on Steam. DRM-free builds will be added at a later date."

they've got many plans. but who knows how much and how long theyll keep at it. hopefully quite long.

they had this awesome idea earlier on about having a Space Station you build, but that got downgraded / scrapped to 'just' a ship c/o they said it would be boring for SP and it would be really good in MP, but it wasnt good in MP since 'everyone' wouldnt see the station develop, it would just show up while you were off doing missions if others upgraded the space station.

i think there was some plan to have some ship vs ship attack mode similar to FTL or something. (maybe it was a fan idea, ive been reading threads over there for too long)

there are going to be (are) mechs in the game (1 person, maybe 2) and supposedly they are in the beta.

but unlike that guy who got robbed for his day and a half's effort of everything who supposedly had gotten everything.

my day and a half's efforts (are quite less impressive) have been refueling the ship, finding a few random items (most crap, 2 good/interesting).
i got murdered by some Hylans (Plant Aliens) i think, with some laser rifles.
i returned and got vengeance but no rifles to loot. still at my (equivalent) +1 Hunting Bow.
i used the ship to get to another planet in my same universe (i can see my 'home world' in the backgrounds of the new planet. i think) and and looting the hell out the surface, about to hit the 'random' button on the coordinates and see what happens.

Quick question. Does Starbound use steamworks for multiplayer or how is it done if not?

If it doesnt use Steamworks for multiplayer, would be the only reason why is either isnt/or unlikely to come to GOG in future because its a game in beta i wonder?. It sounds like its going to be a popular game...

I can't tell if it uses Steamworks yet because the game still doesn't run for me. And because of GOG's impending money back guarantee, I think that would mean that they don't have any plans for alphas/betas/early access games in the future. You should see all the raging on the Steam forums, despite the game clearly being labeled as early access, I'm sure GOG doesn't want any part of that. And the game is already very popular, there's about 40,000+ people playing at a time, and Chucklefish made something like $2 million so far just from the pre-order phase.

Whats money back guarantee got to do with it?
Their past survey showed customers want beta/alpha access on here.

There were articles about GOG changing their refund policy:
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_in_the_mediainterviews/post58
Shortly after I posted that, G-Doc and TheEnigmaticT broke into those journalists' offices swinging bike chains and forced them to kill the story. =\

I don't think so.

You will be able to host (or join) your own servers after the beta through a stand-alone download. If that will be possible as well with the Steam version I'm not sure but it was possible with Terraria so they likely didn't change it. They might clarify this as soon as the beta is over but I'm not sure how long they plan to have it.

Starbound is still No.1 seller on Steam , been there since launch.

*This* is one reason why GOG should consider early access etc.... from a business perspective it would bring in extra revenue for them (and the dev). Apparently this game had a lot of word of mouth way before launch and people really flocked to it. Bit disappointed GOG isnt a bit more proactive.

Anyway, still holding out to see if GOG comes to play for this game (and certain others). Hows the game looking now with most recent updates etc?.

Starbound's good. But it's earning it's "Early Access" badge. The massive patch they put out broke the game. They had to rush a hotfix that I haven't had a chance to try.

Thanks in no part to Terraria no doubt. If only gog had a bigger staff they could do a little bit more with being proactive.

I have yet to play either Terraria or Starbound. (since i only re-installed steam like 5 days ago)
If either have a nice sale, I'll be interested in splitting a 4-pack.
(I all ready have someone to split with, need 2 more.. I could all ways end up trading/giving away the other 2)

I hated Terraria, but I gave Starbound a try anyway. I love it. =)
What annoyed me most about Terraria was the awkward weapon controls, the terrible overly-silly sound effects, and a soundtrack that was just kind of meh. Starbound improves on all of those, and it also makes mining much less tedious with multi-block-breaking. Plus the whole exploring different planets and sharing coordinates with others (since the coordinates are the seeds) just makes it seem a lot deeper and more exciting than I could ever find Terraria.
If it goes on sale, I would be glad to join in on a 4-pack split. I think I know 1 or 2 people who would enjoy this game.

The four pack from Steam or dev? Steam one doesnt include soundtrack?

Maybe I can join at that time, and help too?..
I'm also interested in the game, and is a bit cheaper here (~11$, 33$ the 4-pack, without any sale)...

I like Terraria. ;p

Thanks I didn't know that, passing link to my friends.
I'll end up getting it from dev's site since they give steam keys too.
Does the dev's site ever have a sale?

As of now $45, split 4 ways is 11.25. (or in gog terms, 2x $5.99 games if generous, or 1x $9.99 if your not generous)

I think I can put off buying it for now since its only in beta phase 2 if I'm correct... I'm undecided.