ORMOD: Directive Surges to 150,000 Wishlists as Open-World Survival Sandbox Momentum Builds

A huge second playtest and a sharp surge in wishlists suggest ORMOD: Directive is quickly becoming one of the more closely watched survival sandboxes on Steam.

House 16 Software’s ORMOD: Directive is gathering serious momentum. According to the developer’s latest update, the open-world survival sandbox has now surged to 150,000 wishlists, a major milestone that puts it firmly on the radar for players who enjoy harsh, system-driven survival games with room for solo play, co-op, and large persistent online servers.

The genre has hardly been short on competition in recent years, with games like Lost Rift, Mist Survival, Rust, Raft, and 7 Days to Die all giving players their own spin on survival pressure, progression, and emergent chaos. What helps ORMOD: Directive stand out is the sheer emphasis on customisation and scale. This is not being pitched as a narrow one-path survival experience, but as a world players can shape around their own preferred level of danger, cooperation, and competition.

First-person forest gameplay in ORMOD: Directive.

A strong playtest has clearly pushed interest higher

The game’s second playtest, held at the end of March, appears to have been a major turning point. House 16 Software said that around 8,000 out of 15,000 invited players jumped into the test, with the game adding 35,000 wishlists in a single weekend. For an upcoming survival title, that is a sizeable burst of momentum, and it suggests the concept is already connecting with a large audience before launch.

That early interest also makes more sense once you look at the feature list. ORMOD: Directive is built around infinite procedural worlds, player-defined difficulty and rules, solo and co-op support, larger persistent servers, PvP and PvE options, Hardcore and Creative modes, tile-based base building, automation, dynamic world events, vehicles, and a persistent mechanoid threat that turns the world into something far less predictable than a standard gather-craft-survive loop.

A quiet forest lake environment in ORMOD: Directive.

A survival sandbox aiming for flexibility as much as danger

The mechanoid presence gives ORMOD: Directive a harsher sci-fi edge than many survival sandboxes in the same lane. Rather than relying only on hunger bars, hostile weather, or rival players, the game builds pressure around an active mechanical threat that stalks the world and keeps the danger level high. Combined with automation systems, dynamic encounters, advanced combat simulation, and base defence, it looks designed to reward players who want both long-term planning and regular moments of panic.

A storm-lit cabin scene in ORMOD: Directive at night.

Just as importantly, House 16 Software is already highlighting the work that still needs to be done. Following the playtest, the developer said the team is addressing tutorial systems, difficulty and progression balancing, inventory improvements, polishing, stealth and night-time visibility, and broader optimisation for both the game and its servers. That kind of post-playtest clarity matters. Big wishlist numbers can create hype, but the real test is whether the developers turn that attention into a better and more stable game.

Right now, ORMOD: Directive looks like a project with genuine upside. It is chasing a big sandbox vision in a crowded genre, but it is also doing so with enough player freedom and enough early traction to make it worth watching closely. If House 16 Software can keep refining the experience while holding onto the depth that helped fuel this recent surge, ORMOD: Directive could become one of the more notable survival releases still to come.

ORMOD: Directive

Release: 2026

Genre: Open-world survival sandbox, base building, automation

Developer / Publisher: House 16 Software

Platforms: PC — Steam

ORMOD: Directive – Official Announcement Trailer

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