We are phasing out physical perks

TL;DR: Physical perks will be removed from supporter packs after December 31st. Order before this date if you want to receive physical perks. And while we have you: Since the Colonization release we have a discount going! Get regular PRO game time for 15% off until Sunday.

Hey everyone,

As unlikely as it seems (and we still can’t quite cope with the fact), Prosperous Universe is turning 10 years old this fall!

For about as long, we have been offering crowd funding-style supporter packs. Given our fair monetisation model and the resulting hard cap on per-player revenue, this was and is intended to allow folks to chip in who want to support a “spreadsheets in space” type of game beyond buying a PRO subscription. Those supporter packs range from 15 to more than 2000 EUR (yes, really…and those top Universe tiers all sold out! Thank you so much!) and they come with all sorts of perks, including physical ones like shirts or art prints.

But this is coming to an end: While we will continue to offer supporter packs for the time being, we’re phasing out physical perks at the end of this year.

Below, we’ll try to answer all the most important questions about this. And if we missed any, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Remind me: What are “physical perks”?

There really are two types of physical perks included in our supporter packs:

Star tiers and above include a small or big “goodie bag”, containing various Prosperous Universe-themed items like shirts, faction badges and more.

Cluster tiers and above also include signed art prints.

These two types are produced and shipped separately. More on that below.

Why are physical perks being phased out?

There are two reasons, really:

Firstly, the Prosperous Universe “team” has shrunk quite a bit ever since public funding for the project ran out. As things stand, Michi is effectively the only developer on the project while Martin is tied up with our other game AirlineSim and company admin duties. Consequently, the cost and logistics of shipping physical perks has become quite a big burden on our little company, and we’d rather spend our extremely limited time and resources on developing the game.

The second and even more significant reason is simple: In almost 10 years, hardly anybody ever asked for their physical perks! Even people “waiting” for several years never complained or asked about it. Not a single person ever inquired about signed art prints. Our take-away from this is that most people who purchased supporter packs did so first and foremost to support the game, and not for the sake of the (physical) perks that come with them.

I have purchased a tier with physical perks but haven’t received them yet. Will I still get them?

Yes, absolutely. Any order for a supporter pack placed before the end of December will include physical perks.

How will the phase-out work?

For the time being, we will keep supporter packs as such available. The tiers will remain more or less identical except for the fact that they won’t include any physical perks any more.

When will it happen?

We will stop accepting orders for supporter packs including physical perks after December 31st of 2025. So if you order before or on that date, you’ll receive physical perks. If you order later, you won’t.

When will the final batch of goodie bags be shipped?

Our current plan is to take inventory and order new stock right after the cut-off date and then ship the remaining orders as soon as we’ve got everything in stock again. So the tentative plan is to close this chapter sometime in Q1 of 2026.

Important: Make sure to add your address to your account or check that it is still valid. We will send more reminders about this as the shipping date approaches.

What about art prints?

As mentioned above, not a single person entitled to receiving a print ever asked about it. As such, and due to their high cost, we’ve opted to only ship them on explicit request.

So if your tier includes a print and you want it, please get in touch, and we’ll get it produced and shipped to you asap. They are made-to-order items anyway, as our concept artist gets them printed locally, then signs them and finally ships them out to you.

Any impact from the US (tariff) situation?

The vast majority of our supporters are from the US, so the tariff wars will likely have an impact. Either due to high shipping costs or added trouble around customs. Possibly both.

That said, we will assess the situation once we are ready to ship. At the end of the day, we can’t do much beyond packing a box, slapping a label on it and handing it over to DHL for shipping. What happens afterwards is largely outside our control and additional import duties might have to be paid by the receivers.

Any news about digital and other perks?

Ironically, some of our digital perks have been (far) longer in the making than our physical ones. But we’re on it and both the “Structure Blueprints” and “The secret soundtrack” perks will hopefully be ready around the same time we ship the last batch of goodie bags.

For all the other manually fulfilled perks, like chats/meetings with the devs or “Design a Commodity”, please get in touch with us.