Deep Rock Galactic's Future, and Why Ghost Ship Partners With Invisible Walls

The Danish team behind the Deep Rock Galactic franchise, Ghost Ship Publishing, have revealed key details on the future of Deep Rock Galactic and Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core during its third Ghost Ship Publishing: On the Horizon stream. During the broadcast, it was revealed that Season 06 of Deep Rock Galactic is in development in collaboration with the Danish developer Invisible Walls and is set to launch early next year.

Until now, new seasons had always been developed in-house by Ghost Ship. However, in order to allow the team to focus more on the upcoming (and postponed again) roguelite spin-off, Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core, they have teamed up with an external partner, essentially outsourcing development, so that they can concentrate on Rogue Core while still providing the community with new content. The chosen partner studio is Invisible Walls, which is also based in Copenhagen and is known for Neighbors: Suburban Warfare and First Class Trouble. They specialise in creating social games in which social interaction forms a key part of the experience, and the cooperative aspect of Deep Rock Galactic fits in well with that.

"We've worked closely with our friends at Invisible Walls to help shape Season 6 into the best possible experience for our community", said Mikkel Martin Pedersen, Game Director and CCO at Ghost Ship Games. "After six months of working together and exploring different concepts for DRG expansions, we're confident in the team's vision for the upcoming season, while we work hard on the future of the Deep Rock Galactic franchise and Rogue Core." Art Director at Invisible Walls, Andreas Bech is also enthusiastic about the collaboration and delighted to be involved in the popular franchise.

In a more in-depth interview, Pedersen explained that they could see themselves continuing the collaboration for a longer period of time, provided that everything goes according to plan with Season 6 and the new content is well received. Continuing the seasons is important for Ghost Ship, as their co-op adventure game featuring space-mining dwarves, released in 2020, regularly breaks the 10,000 concurrent player mark on Steam. In any case, Ghost Ship ensures that the new content fits well into the DRG universe and has the right look and feel. The team has already had positive experiences working with Funday, which is also based in Denmark - after all, the Aarhus-based team has already created the highly successful spin-off Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor. When asked about this, Pedersen said that the success of the 'Survivor'-like game had exceeded their expectations by far. This was another reason why they decided to port the game to mobile.

"With the success we've seen for Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor on both PC and Xbox this year, we are thrilled to be bringing the game to mobile devices. We've always strived to make our players think just one more run, and with the mobile launch, we have stayed true to the game's DNA by keeping the intensity of the PC version on portable devices. We believe that having the game on mobile phones now allows for players to have that same experience anywhere, anywhen!" Funday Games producer, Jacob Laurits Besenbacher Kjeldsen

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is now available via Google Play and the Apple App Store. The base game can be unlocked for £8.99 / €9.99 / $9.99, and there is a free-to-try option. The Deluxe Edition, which includes the After Hours and Supporter skin packs, is also available for £12.99 / €14.99 / $14.99.

Let's go back to Deep Rock Galactic. Season 6 is called Relics of Hoxxes. It transports players to the Ossuary Depths, a tomb-like biome filled with ancient bones. Due to launch in Q1 of 2026, players can look forward to a new 'Heavy Extraction' mission type, new Ossiran enemies, and an 'Ossium Raid' seasonal event. The three new enemies include the Ossiran Scrab, a small scavenger that makes up for its size in numbers, and its larger, deadlier and stealthier cousin, the Ossiran Pit Jaw. In the new mission type, players must unearth large pieces of amber by hand and attach them to booster rockets for extraction into orbit. During the seasonal event, players must confront the Ossiran Bone Collectors, insect-like prospectors that hoard crystallised Ossium and skeletal remains. These creatures flee when spotted, so players must track them to their nests to find a substantial stash of Ossium. The season will also see the return of a free Performance Pass packed with unlockable rewards, as well as a new pickaxe set and Diesel-themed cosmetic DLC armour.

Now that Invisible Walls is taking care of Deep Rock Galactic, reducing the team's workload, Ghost Ship can focus entirely on Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core, but Early Access will not be happening this year. Instead, the team is planning to release it in Q2 2026.

"Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core is an exciting new evolution for the series, as we bring our co-op gameplay model into the roguelike genre. We originally planned to launch the game in late 2025; however, we realised that the game needs a few more months to be the best it can be. Until then, we're excited to bring Season 6 of Deep Rock Galactic to fans and hope this scratches their itch until Rogue Core launches next year." - Mikkel Martin Pedersen, Game Director and CCO at Ghost Ship Games

Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core (Unreal Engine 5) combines the hallmark co-op experience of Deep Rock Galactic with a core roguelite gameplay loop - there will be a meta gameplay system with permanent character progression that carries over between missions. Players take on the role of Hoxxes IV's elite security force, the Reclaimers, and face a new challenge as they explore the planet's depths. Reclaimers must band together to dive deep into Hoxxes IV. They begin each run with basic equipment and must fight their way through cavernous landscapes to find upgrades, gear and abilities that will improve their odds of survival and help them complete their mission below the surface.

Rogue Core is a spin-off that runs in parallel with Deep Rock Galactic. However, thanks to its roguelite gameplay loop, it is hoped that Rogue Core will be sufficiently different from its parent game, while also offering more variability, new enemies and new classes. The fifth Rogue Core class has already been announced: the Retcon. This class has the ability to designate a point in time to which she can return herself.

Since the launch of Deep Rock Galactic, the cooperative gaming landscape has changed significantly. Back then, they had very few competitors, but now the situation is different, said Pedersen, who mentioned Helldivers 2 from Arrowhead in particular, as well as ARC Raiders, although that is more PvPvE. Nevertheless, he believes that, thanks to their experience, established brand, familiar look and loyal community, they are in a strong position.

The developers explained why Rogue Core did not become DLC as follows: "We felt making it a DLC would limit the game's potential. When we started working on Rogue Core as a prototype project, we quickly realized that we’d really have to dial down our scope and ambitions if we wanted it to all fit into Deep Rock Galactic. It's been much more motivating (and fun) to explore new gameplay systems, art directions, weapons and damage mechanics when we don’t have to 'justify' or balance it with regular Deep Rock Galactic. There's a lot we want to explore here, and we just couldn't do that within the confines of a traditional DLC. (...) You can't do Early Access with a DLC. Early Access is a really important way for us to shape the game according to community feedback, and there’s no way to do that with DLC for an existing game. Deep Rock Galactic wouldn’t have been the success it is without a healthy Early Access run, so we wanted the same development experience with Rogue Core. For more of our thoughts and feelings about Early Access, check out the 'Early Access' section up above."

Ghost Ship Games is a Danish game development studio founded in spring 2016 by a group of veteran developers who had worked together for many years. Their motto is simple: Co-op First. Their debut game, Deep Rock Galactic, was released on Steam Early Access in 2018 and remained there for two years prior to its full release in 2020. In 2021, Ghost Ship was acquired by the Swedish video game holding company, Embracer Group. In February 2023, Ghost Ship announced the launch of its Ghost Ship Publishing branch, with games like DarkSwarm, SpellRogue, Dinolords and Guntouchables.