Probably Stolen Playtest: What Happened and How to Play Now

The developer announced the game on August 3, 2026 with a playtest available right away. Over August, several patches added content, including the Rock Bottom start, water upgrades and the Rat Wrangler start. Each patch was posted in the Steam news feed.

On August 28, the developer announced that 100,000 players had tried the playtest and that a Demo was coming on September 14. On September 9, a "Playtest Ledger" post summarised the feedback. The Demo and the release date both arrived on September 14.

The playtest was the pre-Demo test. The developer's own posts describe moving from playtest to Demo, and the current pre-release route documented on Steam is the Demo. A playtest video is not evidence that its old access button still works.

Use the Demo listing instead. It is free and contains a newer build than any playtest.

These are three separate states. The playtest was historical test access. The Demo is a free, public pre-release build.

The full game is the paid 1.0 release on October 28, 2026. When you read a guide, check which of the three it describes.

The September 9 Playtest Ledger shared what the developer heard. Players wanted more of everything: unique customers, starting perks, items and machines. Gambling was popular, and the Hard Mode Rock Bottom start was a big hit.

Players also asked for more store customization. Many quality-of-life changes in the Demo came directly from this feedback.

The developer listed improvements going into the Demo. They included moving and using multiple items at once, better support for non-16:9 monitors and an upgradable bottle printer. Equip mode and a Toolbox for binding tools to number keys were also added.

The Demo also introduced the Water Merchant start, a new machine, a new challenge perk and fixes for missing translations. The full details are in the Update 049 notes.

In August, the developer said you would be able to transfer playtest saves to the Demo. They have also said Demo saves are compatible with 1.0, while strongly recommending a fresh game. Compatibility is not the same as a guarantee that every old save behaves perfectly.

Back up any save before moving it. Update 049 added a Discover button on the load screen that finds manually added saves.

Some playtest tricks were fixed later. For example, an August patch stopped players farming Security reputation by displaying contraband and then hiding it to pass inspection. Another changed the Aug game-over ending to apply only on Hard Mode.

Update 049 fixed many more exploits and bugs. Keep playtest bugs and exploits out of your current plans unless you can reproduce them in the active build.

Community mods existed during the playtest, and the developer confirmed this in an August reply on Steam. Those mods were built for older builds. Mods made for the Demo are also likely to be incompatible with 1.0, according to the developer.

See the mods guide for safe installation habits.

Playtest videos are still useful for seeing how the game plays. Many popular early videos, including the ones listed here, come from August. Use them for ideas, not as current instructions.

Check the upload date against the patch timeline above. Anything before September 14 is a playtest build.

Patch 48.3.10 on August 6 added Rock Bottom, a hardcore start where you begin with nothing. It made the water trading guide available from Dr. Jackson and added Wild's Network water upgrades. It also limited the Aug game-over ending to Hard Mode and added a 60 FPS cap.

Patch 48.3.12 on August 7 unhid the Rat Wrangler start, which had been a secret scenario. It also closed the contraband display exploit for Security reputation. Both patches are useful context if you rewatch early videos.

Most early community knowledge came from playtest runs. Many guides and videos were made in August, when interest grew quickly. That material still explains the core loop well.

What it cannot do is describe the current build precisely. Prices, bugs and balance changed in Update 049 and later. When advice conflicts, the newest dated developer post wins.

Is the Probably Stolen playtest still open? The current pre-release route on Steam is the free Demo, which replaced the playtest on September 14.

Can I move my playtest save to the Demo? The developer said in August that playtest saves could be transferred to the Demo. Back up your save first.

How many people played the playtest? The developer reported 100,000 players in late August 2026.

Will the playtest build come back? We found no announcement of another playtest. The full game launches on October 28, 2026.

Open the Steam Demo page and install the free Demo. It runs on Windows 10 64-bit and needs 1 GB of storage. The download guide covers the steps.

The Demo will be removed when 1.0 launches on October 28. Read the Demo guide and the release date guide for what comes next.