Since the game updater did not give any warnings about this, and the game didn't pop up with a dialog "This savegame is incompatible with this version" but crashed hard instead, this is a bug no matter how you look at it.

I have re-started a new save, so workarounds aren't needed.

To keep the thread clean, I pre-reply to a few comments that always seem to show up around bug reports.

1. "I imagine handling old savegames is hard."  I don't care about uninformed speculations and the developers certainly don't.  If they believe it is not worth the effort, let them decide that themselves.  The game crashed, so I'm reporting a crash.

2. "Just restart your game and stop complaining."  I did restart, and I'm not complaining.  This is a crash bug report.

3. "Everybody knows that doesn't work."  Wonderful for you.  I didn't, and the game didn't tell me, so I submit a bug report.

Patch Notes

In case you dont wanna follow the link.

Im assuming you been your new here, and have not been use to the way patches work. For future reference, expect any patch to do this. Its been the normal since Entrechment and its due to the changes in the engine they make every patch. Basically your old saves and replay checksums dont match the new required ones for the new patch. You can submit the bug report but they are just gonna refer back to the patch notes.

Handling of old saves isn't hard, it simply doesn't make sense.  The game would have played out differently, had the patch been implemented.  Sometimes, the changes would have been small, but it could be the difference in which planets you own or how many ships, credits, metal, crystal you have or even whether your starbase survived the last pirate raid.  And since, as a human being, you would have played the game out differently from that point on, the developers can't predict how you would respond. 

In other words, it'd be somewhat irresponsible for saved games to work after a patch.