Game: Probably Stolen – Cyberpunk Shopkeeper Sim
Developer: Questing Goose Studio
Publisher: tinyBuild
Genre: Shopkeeping Sim / Management RPG
Released: October 28, 2026
Price: $19.99 · $17.99 until November 11
Platform: PC (Steam) · Steam Deck Playable
🛒 How we reviewed it: on PC, via Steam. It’s brand new, but some players already logged 100+ hours in the playtest and demo, so we’ve also noted what players are saying where it helps. Heads up: the game deals in drugs, alcohol abuse, bribery, racketeering and illegal goods, all with a pitch-black sense of humor.
200KSold in Hours
86KPeak Players
6Starting Paths
21Achievements
$17.99Launch Price
📦 Know this first: this is one of the biggest indie launches of the year. Probably Stolen sold 200,000 copies in its first few hours, peaked at more than 86,000 concurrent players, and sits at Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam. If you played the demo, your save carries over. It’s 10% off ($17.99) until November 11, and it supports Steam Workshop mods.
🏙️ Business Runs on Merchandise With Flexible Origins
You’re a former scavenger who secured a storefront on a towering, dystopian space station thanks to a generous loan and some questionable timing. Now the rent is rising, the factions are watching, and most of your best margins live in legal gray zones.
You never really know who’s on the other side of the counter. Today’s customer could be a Security officer fishing for evidence, a revolutionary looking for leverage, or a fallen elite testing how useful you are. Approve it, refuse it, report it, or look away: someone is always taking notes. Your goal is to earn enough to buy out your shop before the rent forces your hand.
Buy low. Sell high. Don’t ask where it came from.
From Questing Goose Studio and publisher tinyBuild, Probably Stolen has been building buzz for months. We covered its announcement and playtest, and its demo was one of the most-played demos of Steam Next Fest. After a public playtest and a hugely popular demo, the full release has landed with a bang. Players have been comparing it to Papers, Please, and that’s a fair place to start.
Our verdict: “This cyberpunk shopkeeper sim brilliantly balances economic hustle with faction intrigue, making every trade decision feel genuinely consequential and tense.”
Choose Your Trouble
You can start as a gunsmith, chemist, water merchant, fence or farmer, or from absolute rock bottom. Each starting kit comes with its own strengths, and each character has vices that hold you back. More jobs unlock as you go, including hydroponic farmer and organ dealer. As the game itself puts it, you’re not choosing a theme for your shop. You’re choosing which kind of trouble you’re willing to monetize.
🔫 Weapons
Permits, modifications, and inspections waiting to happen.
🧪 Chemicals
Closely guarded recipes, great margins, and a whole lot of addiction.
💧 Water
Test it, filter it, sell it, and hope nobody gets sick.
🕶️ Contraband
Fence stolen goods and hide them well. Raids happen.
Every item carries risk. Cigarette packs need inspecting before resale, rare goods need proper appraisal so you don’t overpay, and you can cut quality, relabel counterfeits as genuine, or sell discounted stolen goods if you think Security won’t catch up with you. Suppliers overstate value, customers push their luck, and contraband often comes with problems you only notice after the deal is done.
Surprisingly Deep Production Chains
🐀 Rat Eugenics, Organ Testing and Chemistry
You can play it as a straightforward buy-low, sell-high shop sim, but the real hook is crafting your own goods, and it’s far deeper than you’d expect. One player describes chemistry and rat farming as weirdly complex and in-depth, in a way that perfectly scratches the min-maxing itch. Organ harvesting, for example, means running genetic checks on organs to avoid degenerative diseases, and keeping your equipment supplied with pure, high-quality water.
Then there’s the inventory itself. Arranging your stock is a satisfying spatial puzzle that one player compared to the Tetris-style inventories of extraction shooters. It’s all wrapped in an addictive “one more day” loop that one player compared to Civilization’s “one more turn” pull. There are proper stories too: one player singled out the storylines with a rookie Security officer and an exiled woman.
Every Sale Is a Gamble
⚖️ Factions, Augs and Very Bad Decisions
Reputation buys you access and protection, but it also paints a target on your back. You’ll navigate cutthroat station politics, build relationships with factions for exclusive deals, unlock advanced licenses for the underground market, and decide whether to exploit or help the less fortunate. One player summed up their run as rat eugenics, medical fraud and playing both sides of a revolution.
There’s also a rogue AI chip that has taken over its hosts. These “Augs” look like everyone else until they don’t, and every faction agrees on the policy. You have the gun to enforce it, but misreading the signs carries its own price. It also leads to some darkly hilarious stories: one player shot a wanted cannibal serial killer and was charged with manslaughter anyway.
Where It Stumbles
⚠️ Some Stock Still Needs Sorting
1. Feels a little unfinished in places. One player described it as more of a “0.9” than a 1.0. Some systems, like certain upgrades, feel a bit undercooked, though what’s there is already very good.
2. Balance. The same player found some machines barely worth using, singling out the Water Purifier, and found module drops a little too random. To be fair, the developers have already reworked the Water Purifier and cut the prices of water equipment in a launch-day hotfix.
3. Steam Deck setup. It’s rated Playable rather than Verified. One player says it runs well at native resolution once you use the mouse controller template.
🛠️ Already Patching
Questing Goose shipped two hotfixes on launch day, fixing a reputation bug, ultrawide tooltip issues and a blackmail bug, and reworking the Water Purifier while cutting water equipment prices. Dozens of mods are already on the Steam Workshop.
Things to Know
📋 Before You Buy
• $19.99, or $17.99 with the 10% launch discount until November 11
• Supporter Edition adds the soundtrack · bundles with Graveyard Keeper 2, ReStory and more
• Demo saves carry over to the full game
• Single-player · Steam Cloud · Family Sharing · Steam Workshop · 21 achievements · 8 languages
• Minimum: Windows 10, Core i3, 8 GB RAM, GTX 650 Ti, just 1 GB of storage
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
| The Good |
The Bad |
The Ugly |
| “One More Day”Dangerously addictive, in the best way. |
A Few Undercooked SystemsSome upgrades and machines feel unfinished. |
Your MoralsOrgan dealing, counterfeits and rat eugenics. Who are you? |
| Deep Production ChainsChemistry, farming and organ testing go far deeper than expected. |
Balance & RNGSome machines and module drops need tuning (fixes are already landing). |
— |
| Tense, Consequential TradesEvery customer could be a cop, a rebel or worse. |
Deck SetupPlayable, but best with the mouse template. |
— |
| Six Ways to StartDifferent jobs, perks and vices for huge replayability. |
— |
— |
| Darkly FunnyFaction politics and AI paranoia create hilarious stories. |
— |
— |
The Verdict
Probably Stolen is the rare shop sim that’s about more than stocking shelves. Every customer is a risk, every product line is a different flavor of trouble, and its production chains are deep enough to keep min-maxers busy for a very long time. It’s tense, darkly funny and dangerously addictive, which explains why some players logged 100+ hours before it even launched.
A few systems still need balancing and polish, but the developers are already patching at speed, and the mod scene is up and running. This is a strong foundation that should only get better.
The honest read: if you like Papers, Please, shopkeeping sims or management games with real consequences, buy it while it’s $17.99. Just don’t start a run if you need to be up early tomorrow.
For more game reviews, check out our full reviews section.
Score Breakdown
“One More Day” Factor9.5/10
Crafting & Production Chains9.0/10
Risk & Reward Trading9.0/10
Starting Paths & Replayability9.0/10
Writing & Dark Humor8.5/10
Characters & Side Stories8.0/10
Content Completeness8.0/10
Final Score
8.6/10
Probably Stolen – Cyberpunk Shopkeeper Sim — Questing Goose Studio
Papers, Please meets the black market, and it’s dangerously addictive.
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