Warren Spector and Paul Neurath's Thick as Thieves is live on Steam today, ending the 30-month wait that began with a Game Awards 2024 reveal and a mid-development pivot that scrapped its planned PvPvE direction for solo and two-player co-op heists.
The launch price is the headline. OtherSide Entertainment and publisher Megabit are charging $4.99 / £4.99 / €4.99 for the first release - an "introductory campaign" that ships with 16 contracts, two replayable maps, and six pieces of gear across a four-hour-plus debut run through the fictional Scottish city of Kilcairn. The studio has been blunt about what that price buys: a deliberately compact opening act, with future content drops planned to grow the game over time rather than holding everything back for a $70 release window.
The setting is an alternate-history 1910s Kilcairn - a Scottish city built on canals, soot, and the kind of weird steam-and-arcana hybrid technology that gives the game its visual identity. The Triple-i Initiative trailer leaned hard into the period flourishes: jazz horn cues, neon sign reflections, calling cards left on velvet, and vaults that demand mechanical patience rather than gunfire.
A genre roll call, finally shipping
The credits here read like a stealth roll call. Warren Spector directed Deus Ex and Thief: Deadly Shadows. Paul Neurath produced Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II: The Metal Age. OtherSide has spent the better part of a decade trying to follow up on Underworld Ascendant in a way that returns the team to what those earlier games were celebrated for, and the studio has framed Thick as Thieves as that return.
Gameplay is dynamic stealth in the immersive-sim tradition. Guards have patrol logic that responds to noise, light, and missing items. Each contract supports multiple infiltration routes, and OtherSide has talked up the way difficulty settings restructure level layouts rather than just inflating enemy health. There is a real chance heists go loud - the launch trailer cuts to getaway sequences where the calling card is on the floor and the alarm is already ringing.
Solo or partners-only
Every contract plays solo or with one partner online. The pivot away from competitive PvPvE - announced in late 2024 - was framed by the team as a focus decision: with a small studio and a $5 entry point, OtherSide chose to ship the part it was most confident in. A senior designer has acknowledged that a PvPvE mode "may come further down the line," but it is not on the roadmap that has been shared so far.
Console versions for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S have been announced but do not yet have firm dates. For today, this is a PC launch - Steam only - and the entry point is small enough that it is likely to pull in the curious as well as the long-time Spector and Neurath faithful.
Thick as Thieves is available on Steam now.
