Unofficial field indexUpdated for v0.4.0.115 — checked 17 Sep 2026
Guide / Active Matter demo and beta: every test window, and what carried over
Active Matter demo and beta: every test window, and what carried over
The short answer
There is no beta to join and no demo to download right now. Active Matter released in full on 15 September 2026, which ended the demo and closed-test programme. If you are looking for a free way to try the game, the honest answer is that the current route is the Standard edition at $29.99 — there is no free trial, and the game is buy-to-play rather than free-to-play.
What existed before release, and what each window gave you, is below.
Every test window
| Window | Type | Platform | What it was | Did progress carry over? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2024 | Closed beta registration | PC | Sign-ups opened | n/a |
| December 2024 | First playtest | PC | Earliest hands-on round | No |
| March 2025 | Closed beta | PC | Test round | No |
| June 2025 | Closed beta | PC | Test round | No |
| 9 September 2025 | Early Version on sale | PC (Gaijin Store) | Paid early access, not a demo | Yes — this became the live PC build |
| 6–23 November 2025 | Steam demo | PC (Steam) | Demo with limited progression | Yes — saved and carried into the full Steam version |
| March 2026 | Steam Next Fest | PC (Steam) | Festival appearance with a demo build | — |
| 30 April – 12 May 2026 | Steam demo | PC (Steam) | Demo window | Yes |
| June 2026 (closed 30 June) | Xbox demo | Xbox Series X|S | Console demo | Yes |
Swipe the table sideways to read every column
What the Xbox demo actually gave you
The Xbox demo was unusually generous: players reported it contained the whole currently available experience, with two caps on top — a player-level cap and a Monolith-progression tier cap — which locked out some meta progression but left the rest of the game open, including looting and accumulating all three currencies. It ran at 60 FPS on both Series X and Series S. Progress made in the demo transferred when the full game was bought.
Two practical notes from that window, both of which were player-reported rather than official:
- A controller aiming bug made aim feel floaty on every load, with a workaround of dragging the aim-acceleration slider back to zero after each spawn.
- The demo confirmed the mode split that the full game shipped with: Isolated Raid for PvE-only play, Open Raid for PvPvE, and a separate arcade-style PvP mode.
Closed-beta rewards
The August 2025 pre-order announcement tied closed-beta participation to edition gifts: players who put more than two hours into the closed beta received the Standard edition free, and players past forty hours received the Advanced edition. That offer belonged to the pre-release period and is closed.
Steam demo carry-over, in the developers' words
The November 2025 Steam demo announcement stated that the demo would run until 23 November, that progression inside it was limited, and that "your progress will be saved and automatically carried over to the full version of the game once it's released on Steam". We quote it because the wording is narrower than people often assume: the promise is specifically about Steam to Steam.
If you missed all of it
Nothing in the test programme is required to enjoy the released game, and no test-exclusive progression advantage carries into a fresh account. If you want to know what the current build looks like before paying, the two things worth reading first are the editions and price comparison and the current review picture.