Big Hops is adding 8-player co-op, and the change is live right now on Steam. Luckshot Games says up to eight players can play together through the whole game, with no single-player-only concessions and no half-baked version of the experience. If you were already impressed by the game’s tongue-grappling, air-diving, cannon launches, and traversal across mountains, deserts, and perilous oceans, the pitch is simple: bring more players, keep the full game, and do it without watering anything down.

The open beta is on Steam, not across every platform at once. Steam players can try the multiplayer now by installing Big Hops and launching it via the public “Together” branch, and the full mode will fully launch on Steam on August 9. The stakes for decision-makers are straightforward: this is not a limited-time side mode or a cosmetic “multiplayer flavor.” Steam is being used as the distribution and certification funnel for a complete co-op experience.

For context, Big Hops is coming out of a year where a lot of game development attention has been pulled toward cost control, scope reduction, and systems that stretch engagement without increasing production risk. Against that backdrop, “no concessions” is a line that matters. Luckshot Games frames Big Hops Together as an all-in co-op implementation, stating there is “no single-player only content” and “no half baked version of the game you know and love.” That matters for players, but it also matters for the commercial logic behind the update. If the mode truly covers the whole game, then the company is effectively betting that co-op will increase the game’s replay value and social pull, not just provide a novelty week.

There is also a real commercial tradeoff baked in. The director explicitly ties the launch strategy to platform focus. Chris Wade, director at Luckshot Games, tells Kotaku that it is “easier to focus” on just one platform. The source is clear that co-op Big Hops will only be available on Steam at launch, leaving PS5 and Switch 2 players to bounce around by themselves for now. That is an immediate downside for part of the audience, and it creates an operational reality: the team is prioritizing one platform for shipping and support, which can reduce QA fragmentation and reduce risk of platform-specific regressions.

This is where second-order implications show up for execs watching the industry. When an indie studio chooses Steam-first, it is not only about audience size. It is about execution velocity, bug triage, and how quickly the company can iterate on multiplayer issues. Multiplayer co-op tends to expose edge cases faster than single-player modes. If you are trying to deliver “up to 8 players” through the whole game, you need bandwidth for stability work and for responsiveness during the open beta, especially as real players stress the traversal and interaction systems.

There is also an expectation-setting moment in the marketing. The game has its own tone. It leans into the absurdity of “hops” and describes gameplay built around tongue-grappling, air-diving, and being shot out of cannons. The co-op labeling, Big Hops Together, signals that the studio intends for co-op to be the version people talk about, not a checkbox feature. For boards, investors, and operators evaluating indie pipeline health, this is a signal of product discipline: the studio is attaching a major feature to the existing brand experience rather than spinning it off into something separate.

Ultimately, Big Hops Together is a strategic bet with a measurable timeline. The mode is in open beta on Steam now, and the full launch is set for August 9. The question for competitors is not whether co-op is trendy. It is whether an indie team can deliver a complete, whole-game co-op experience at scale and then support it through the transition from open beta to full launch. In a market where teams often compromise on scope to survive, Luckshot Games is promising the opposite: build the full thing, on Steam first, and then expand later.