Although Nextcolony is still in its early stages, it seems to have a tremendous amount of potential. These types of apps are exactly what Steem needs.
It encourages people to create steem accounts and hold SP as RCs are required to play the game
It provides something to actually spend Steem on. Players are encouraged to buy ships, planets, blueprints, and resources.
It can generate positive PR for Steem. "Did you hear about the space exploration on the Steem blockchain?"
It provides an example to future developers that games on Steem can succeed. Even though this game is being built and improved on the fly, it shows how effective and inexpensive it is to build on the Steem blockchain.
Supporting this team will inspire game developers to build more games on Steem in the future. "Wow The Nextcolony guys got a delegation to help grow their game. If we build a cool game on Steem, it's possible we can earn a delegation as well."
Steem needs a killer app in order to draw in the masses. Is Nextcolony that app? Who knows? But encouraging this type of development will make it more likely that this team or others like it will invest the time and effort needed in order to help Steem succeed. Regardless of this specific app's success or failure, the lessons learned from the development and implementation of Nextcolony will definitely make it more likely that Steem will eventually get that killer app. Steemit Inc needs to prove that it is willing and able to support brave development teams who take a shot at creating a killer app that will benefit all of us.