Exterminauts is a three-player cooperative third-person PvE shooter in development at Behaviour Interactive and published by Level Infinite in partnership with a publishing team called TEAM SHOOTER & CREATIVE. It was revealed during the gamescom Opening Night Live ceremony on 25 August 2026 and is planned for 2027 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. See Release Date and Platforms for the full storefront and platform picture.
The premise is deliberately unheroic. Instead of soldiers or superheroes, crews play blue-collar galactic field technicians sent to hazardous off-world worksites to exterminate alien infestations, repair broken industrial infrastructure and respond to emergencies. The developers have described the role as a combination of exterminator, repairman and first responder, working for a paycheque rather than a cause. The tagline sums up the whole attitude: Punch In. Clean Up. Get Paid.
Setting
The game is set on Planet Tian, a lush alien world whose crust conceals a rare resource called Polymorphic Plasma. Corporations moved in to mine it, built large facilities and infrastructure across the surface, and in doing so provoked the planet's native life. As extraction ramped up, the aliens turned aggressive and began tearing into human installations. Civilians pulled out. The corporations did not, because the resource is too valuable to abandon. Exterminauts are the crews sent back down to keep the machinery running while the ecosystem fights to reclaim it.
The alien creatures are referred to in-fiction simply as Pests, and the plasma is what draws them. Developer commentary has described the substance as being like honey to them, which is why they will chew through pipework, machinery and entire facilities to reach it. That single appetite is the engine of every job in the game.
Core Loop
A run begins aboard an orbiting base called the Rig, where the crew picks a job from a board, configures loadouts and clocks on. Once deployed to the worksite, the objective set mixes three verbs the developers have summarised as fix, fight and collect: repair damaged infrastructure, exterminate the Pests interfering with it, and gather resources along the way. When the contract objectives are done the crew clocks out, holds a short final stand against an incoming wave, and extracts. Earnings are then spent back on the Rig on upgrades and equipment before the next shift. Gameplay covers the loop in detail, and Contracts covers the job structure itself.
Developers have given run lengths in the region of fifteen to forty minutes depending on the job, and have said the expected duration is shown when you choose the work order, so a crew can pick something that fits the time they actually have.
Three Pillars
First-party marketing organises the game around three stated pillars.
Pillar | What It Covers |
|---|---|
Three-Player Blue-Collar Crew | Combat framed as a professional routine rather than a heroic last stand. Expenses are tallied against the crew, so covering your teammates and finishing the shift together is the point. See Co-Op. |
Weaponized Power Tools | Industrial-grade gunplay built on utility and repair equipment repurposed as firearms, with an OVERDRIVE system that overcharges them. See Weapons and Gadgets. |
A Hostile Alien Ecosystem | Tian is described as a living world that fights back, with alien threats that adapt to the squad's tactics and force constant repositioning and communication. |
Combat and Equipment
Alongside conventional firearms, crews carry special weapons built out of blue-collar hardware. Four have been named on the record: an Ice Gun, an Electric Gun, an Anti-Gravity Gun and a Foam Gun. Movement is unusually mobile for the genre, with sliding, shooting while sliding, rolling and zipline traversal all confirmed.
The signature piece of kit is OVERDRIVE, a large power clamp worn at the waist that draws on plasma stored in a backpack battery. Clamping it onto a special weapon overcharges that weapon well past its normal output. It is also a utility tool, used to shock enemies directly, hack terminals, open doors and start ziplines, which is why the marketing calls it multi-purpose.
There are no fixed classes. A crew member's role is assembled from a shoulder patch called an Emblem plus a chosen combination of weapons, gadgets, MODs and passive abilities. Because different contracts field different aliens with different weaknesses, checking the job before you build is part of the preparation.
Development and Release
Exterminauts has been described by its developer as the studio's most ambitious original IP. Talks with the publisher began around 2021 and the project formally started in 2022, with the creative director describing roughly five years of work by the time of the reveal. It is the first full-scale collaboration between the two companies. A playable build was shown behind closed doors and on the public show floor at gamescom 2026 in Cologne.
The game is planned for 2027. No storefront currently carries a date field beyond a placeholder, so the year is an announced window rather than a scheduled release. Behaviour Interactive covers the studio and the partnership.
Not Yet Confirmed
No alien species has been named in first-party copy, and no bestiary exists.
No playable characters, classes or heroes have been announced, and the developers have stated the game is classless.
No business model, price or edition has been announced. In-app purchases are listed as a storefront category, which is not a statement of model.
No progression, seasonal or post-launch structure has been described beyond spending earnings on upgrades.
No story campaign, named characters or voice cast has been announced.
No beta, playtest or early-access programme has been announced.