Gamescom ’25: Blast through bizarre world with multiplayer shooter Active Matter’s closed edition

Launching ahead of the game’s full retail release, the closed edition of Active Matter is set to bring a new edge to military shooters.

Get active, marines

The term ‘military shooter’ used to mean something pretty specific, though these days it’s taken on some new angles. It isn’t all that unusual, after all, to see a military shooter bend into sci-fi. And yes, that’s just what Active Matter will serve up.

From Gaijin Entertainment and Matter Team, Active Matter is a multiplayer first-person shooter that’ll offer PvPvE, PvE, and PvP play. Gameplay looks, at first glance, to be of the straightforward military type, but look deeper and Active Matter’s world reveals a “quantum catastrophe”.

If you’re wondering what that shakes out to mean, it includes unstable reality, time-loops, and the sort. And while your foes will include other players, there are also some otherworldly creatures that seem like they’ll plague just about everybody.

Active Matter is a hardcore military online PvPvE, PvE, and PvP shooter set in a multiverse shattered by a quantum catastrophe. Each player controls an operative stuck in a time loop, always brought back from the dead to the same point, and enters quantum unstable zones rich with active matter – a substance capable of warping and ripping the very fabric of space and time. The new Active Matter trailer, which premiered at Future Games Show on August 20th, showcases the typical gameplay situations that players will encounter in the multiverse.

Gaijin Entertainment press release

Get a feel for the multiverse

If you liked what you saw above, then you’ll be happy to know that Active Matter is coming sooner than later. Or at least, a taste of it is. While the full retail launch is still a ways off, a closed edition isn’t, and is set to arrive on the Gaijin Store in just a few weeks.

Access to that’ll come via pre-ordering one of a trio of editions, with Advanced, Premium, and Elite Squad all going up direct from the publisher. Those come complete with both a special pre-order skin (if ordered before the 9th) and access to that closed edition. Look for that to go live on September 9th.

It’s not just the above that’s included either, as each edition also includes a “starter arsenal”. According to the press release, buyers will find “sniper rifles, armor plates, scout drones, robo-dogs, and more”, all set to get them started.

None of this comes without a caveat though, and if you’re a regular player of Early Access games, then you know the story. That’s to mean that you can expect “work-in-progress content” from Active Matter‘s closed edition, as well as the ability to “influence the game development by providing feedback to the developers”. Remember, the game’s not actually done yet, hence the “closed edition” tag.

If that sounds good to you though, click on over to the official site, and check out the full details on the pre-orders, along with what’s included with each. And as for that mentioned full retail edition of Active Matter, you can look for that some time in 2026. It’ll arrive then for Steam, as well as PlayStation and Xbox platforms.