Play Stellaris free this weekend for its 6th birthday

Shockingly, Stellaris is now six entire normal Earth years old. The space exploration grand strategy game has changed a lot over its journey, and to celebrate the occasion, Paradox is inviting everyone in to try conquering the galaxy this weekend. Now through May 23, Stellaris is free to try on Steam.

For players who've been traveling among Stellaris celestial bodies since the start, there's more good news: a hotfix is out today for the most recent major update, which arrived alongside the new Overlord expansion. Game director Stephen Muray says this hotfix includes several updates that had initially been planned for a patch later in the month, thanks to the fact that "the team was absolutely on fire".

There are some key updates and rebalances in version 3.4.3 that address issues players have run into since the launch of Overlord. Now you can declare war on a new country immediately when a planet revolts, rather than having to sit through a 10-year truce first, and revolts should no longer start and then immediately cancel.

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