Probably Stolen - Cyberpunk Shopkeeper Sim peaked at 125,292 concurrent players on 30 October 2026, per SteamDB’s tracker, and the official Steam Most Played chart had it at rank 34 with 45,752 in-game when I pulled the page on 29 October — the day after release, and ahead of Cyberpunk 2077 at 43,467 in the same snapshot. The game is $19.99, single-player, and Windows-only. This primer is not a build order: it is what the store page and the launch-week patch notes actually say about the loop, in the words those systems are named with.
What this covers: the buy-low/sell-high loop in the game’s own terms — stocking, appraising, relabelling, haggling, inspections, factionfaction. An in-game group or nation players can align with or fight against, with its own goals and reputation system. reputation and rent — plus the starting scenarios and the early decisions that protect a margin. Why it matters: this site had no coverage of the game, and it just posted one of the larger launches of 2026 for a shopkeeping sim; the sourced version of its mechanics is worth fixing before secondary guides drift. Who should care: anyone deciding whether the loop fits them, and anyone already running a shop who wants rent covered before the confiscations start.
What the store page settles
The name is close to a joke, so it is worth being literal about what is on the page. The official title prints with a hyphen, not a colon: Probably Stolen - Cyberpunk Shopkeeper Sim. It is developed by Questing Goose Studio and published by tinyBuild, released 28 October 2026, and priced at $19.99 with a 10% introductory discount to $17.99 that the US store page says ends 11 November.
| Field | Value printed on the Steam page, 29 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Title | Probably Stolen - Cyberpunk Shopkeeper Sim |
| Developer / publisher | Questing Goose Studio / tinyBuild |
| Released | 28 Oct, 2026 |
| Price | $19.99, discounted 10% to $17.99 until 11 November |
| Platform | Windows, 64-bit only — no Mac or Linux build listed |
| Mode | Single-player; “Singleplayer” is a tag and no co-op or multiplayer tag appears |
| Reviews at fetch | Overwhelmingly Positive — 96% of 1,995 reviews |
| Minimum spec | Win 10 x64, Intel Core i3 or equivalent, 8 GB RAM, GTX 650ti or higher, 1 GB storage |
The shop sim shelf has been crowded for years, and this one is not trying to win it with breadth of content. Its premise is narrower and stranger: a towering space station split by wealth and corruption, a former scavenger who secured a storefront “thanks to a generous loan and questionable timing,” rising rent, and factions watching. The store page’s own mature-content note describes the trade plainly — drug and alcohol abuse, racketeering, bribery and illegal items, in the setting of a sci-fi cyberpunk shopkeeper sim.
The loop, in the game’s words
The store page describes four verbs that repeat: stock, authenticate, haggle, sell. Every item carries its own inspection step. Cigarette packs need visual inspection before resale, water must be tested and filtered, weapons require permits and modifications, profitable chemicals rely on recipes, and rare items need appraisal to avoid overpaying. You can cut a product’s quality, relabel counterfeits as genuine, or fence discounted stolen goods — each of those is a margin decision with a stated consequence attached.
Suppliers are part of the risk, not a neutral vendor: the page says they overstate value, and contraband often comes with problems you only notice after the deal closes. Margins therefore depend less on finding the cheapest listing and more on how well you assess the item and the person selling it, because “misjudge the item or the person selling it, and you absorb the cost.”
Above that transaction layer sits the business layer: keep the rent paid, then expand, run multiple businesses and unlock new merchandise and production. Machines and production chains are named as a system on the feature list (“manage machines and production chains to craft valuable artifacts”), and the 1.0 notes add Vending Machines that keep selling overnight after you close. If you want the general shape of supply-and-demand management done at scale, our Tempest Rising harvesting economy guide covers the macro version of the same judgement; this game just charges it per customer.
Where the risk is actually charged
Risk in this game is not a number you watch drift. It is a visitor who walks in.
The store page frames every sale as a gamble on identity: the customer could be “a security fisher for evidence, a revolutionary seeking leverage, or a fallen elite testing your usefulness,” and you can approve, refuse, report or look away. The 1.0 feature list adds a specific threat — a sentient AI chip went rogue and took its hosts with it, Augs “look like everyone else… until they don’t,” and you have the gun to enforce the station-wide policy. One playtest patch note mentions an “Aug game over meter” on Hard Mode, which tells you the Aug check can end a run.
Inspections are the other blade. The launch hotfixes list fixes for items inside a Smuggler Bay being confiscated during inspections when the bay was in the trash, or when the smaller bay was kept behind a poster — which is a fair description of what those bays are for. The Wand Report’s review describes random searches, goods being confiscated, and crimes being added to a dossier that can eventually shut the shop down. That review also notes contraband carries “varying degrees of heat,” and the store page warns about mob justice when you lean on counterfeits or stolen stock.
There is a paperwork layer too: a Wanted board, an Exchange sheet, a Tablet, an Appraisal Certificate window, a blackmailer event, and the ability to bribe your way out if you are caught. Those are all named in the launch patch notes as objects with UI, not as abstractions.
Reputation runs on more than one ledger
The store page promises that reputation “buys access and protection, but it also paints a target on your back.” The patch notes show that the reputation system is actually several separate accounts.
Hotfix 1.0.0.1 carries the clearest example: reporting a character named Lou to Security no longer lowers your Black Market reputation. That single change proves two reputation pools existed and were coupled by mistake. A playtest note sets a threshold behaviour at minus 40 Black Market reputation, where the janitorial service stays available but costs double — so the game has a stated floor beyond which convenience services get expensive rather than disappearing.
The Wand Report’s review counts five favour tracks shown in a feedback box on the store door: Lower Levels, Upper Levels, Security, Black Market and Revolution. Per the review, favour brings discounts, donations and visitors, while the downside includes increased security checks, thieves and reduced customers. Treat that list as the reviewer’s count of what the interface displays; the store page and patch notes confirm Security and Black Market as separate ledgers but do not enumerate all five.
The same review describes the perk system as the place where reputation is bought at a price: three points at the start, plus the option to take negative perks for more funding. Its worked example is a Bad Lease that raises rent by 40 credits in exchange for reputation with every faction.
Which start you pick is which trouble you agree to
The store page is unusually direct here: “You’re not choosing a theme for your shop, you’re choosing which kind of trouble you’re willing to monetize.” The 1.0 announcement lists nine starting scenarios, and the launch announcement gives each one a one-line brief. Difficulty is separate — four options, applied after the scenario, and the sources name only Normal and Hard Mode by name.
| Start | What the sources say you trade in | The stated downside |
|---|---|---|
| Apprentice | Generalist, funded by a mentor figure; recommended for new players | None stated — the 1.0 notes call it “best for beginners” |
| Water Merchant | Test, purify and re-label water; bottle printer upgrades | “Liability is yours” |
| Fence | Stolen goods and discounted stock | Raids and confiscation risk |
| Gunsmith | Weapons and modifications; 3D printer in the starting setup | High margins, security inspections |
| Chemist | Profitable chemicals from closely guarded recipes | Customer addiction |
| Hydroponic Farmer | Crops in small spaces, ending in genetically modified breeds | Growth time before first sale |
| Aquafarmer | Fish tanks, water quality, filtration and energy cells; tilapia, then eels and sturgeons | Slower-paced than rat ranching, per the demo notes |
| Rat Wrangler | Breeding rats as product | Cages and cleanup work, per the review’s description of robot vacuums and rat faeces |
| Rock Bottom | Nothing at all | Described in the notes as hardcore mode |
Two things worth knowing before you pick. First, the scenario is not the difficulty setting — the 1.0 notes present difficulty as a second choice with four options, and the launch notes suggest combining Rock Bottom with a hard mode setting if you want more challenge. Second, the shop’s product line is not fixed at the start: the store page lists additional jobs to master, including water merchant, hydroponic farmer and organ dealer, and the post-launch roadmap names Junker, Organ Trader and Street Food Vendor scenarios as free future content with no dates attached.
The early decisions that protect a margin
Nothing in these sources hands you an optimal opening, so treat the following as the consequences of stated mechanics rather than a recipe.
Pick the risk you can service, not the margin you like. Weapons bring permits and inspections; chemicals bring addiction and recipes; water brings liability. Each of those is a different workload, and the scenario you choose decides which one lands on you every day.
Assume supplier prices move. Patch 1.0.0.2, shipped within a day of launch, cut the Moisture Farm from 650 to 350 and the Water Filter from 50 to 25, and lowered a supplier’s markup — Dr. Jackson’s — from 25% to 15% on Normal. Any water-economy arithmetic written on launch day is already wrong.
Price the rent, not the profit. The store page is explicit that confiscated stock or one bad deal can leave you unable to make the next payment. Machines, permits, appraisal and stock all want the same Credits the landlord does, and the endgame is buying the store from the landlord — which the 1.0 notes confirm comes with a stats screen covering most profitable sale, days survived and total worth.
Appraise before you buy, not after. Rare items need appraisal to avoid overpaying, and the review describes an appraisal board where you can price goods for a fee. The hotfix list even patches the Appraisal Certificate tooltip, which is a strong hint about how central that window is to a run.
Decide your contraband posture early. Hiding stock in a Smuggler Bay, bribing an inspector, bribing a blackmailer and reporting a criminal are mutually exclusive habits with different ledgers attached. Playtest Patch 48.3.12 (7 August 2026) had already removed one exploit in this area: “A cleared inspection that resulted from showing contraband in the display case will no longer grant Security reputation” — so the free-reputation version of that trick was gone before launch.
Use the overnight income. Vending Machines, added in 1.0, keep selling after you close. In a game where rent is a deadline, passive overnight Credits are the cheapest way to widen the gap between a good day and a payable week.
What the numbers do and do not prove
The launch-week figures are unusually well documented, because the studio posted them itself.
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Peak concurrent players | 125,292 (30 October 2026) | SteamDB |
| In-game at fetch, 29 October | 45,752 (rank 34) | Steam Most Played chart |
| Copies sold in first 24 hours | 350,000 | Launch announcement |
| Copies sold in first few hours | 200,000 | Earlier launch announcement |
| Wishlists before launch | 500,000 | Pre-launch announcement |
| Playtest participants | 100,000+ | Pre-launch announcement |
| Review standing at fetch | 96% of 1,995 positive | Steam store page |
What those numbers do not prove is retention. A 125,292 peak against 45,752 in-game at fetch is a normal launch curve, and the review count was still under two thousand, which is small next to 350,000 copies sold.
What is not confirmed
- Co-op does not exist as far as the store page shows. The tags list Singleplayer, no multiplayer or co-op tag appears, and no co-op mention appears in the feature list or the 1.0 announcement. Treat co-op as absent rather than announced.
- Two difficulty names are unknown. The sources confirm four difficulty options and name Normal and Hard Mode only; the others are not described anywhere I could fetch.
- Roadmap items are undated. Junker, Organ Trader and Street Food Vendor scenarios, Expeditions, new appraisal items and a storyline expansion are listed as future free content with no schedule.
- The perk and faction systems are thinly documented officially. The three starting perk points, the negative-perk trade and the five faction tracks come from The Wand Report’s review, not from the store page or patch notes. They are consistent with the official text but not repeated by it.
- The 1.0 notes warn against one named modifier on a first run — “Sentinel Collapse Disorder” — without explaining what it is. No source I fetched defines it, so this primer does not either.
The practical read: the loop is buy, authenticate, haggle, sell, then survive the inspection that follows. The margin comes from appraisal accuracy and the rent reserve, not from the highest-multiple item on the shelf.