Otherside Entertainment’s Thick as Thieves is a very different game from its reveal. Originally envisioned as an online PvPvE Thief successor set in a dynamic open-world, the game is now a solo and co-op game set in dense, enclosed levels. It’ll also release for just $5.
Designed with assistance from Thief creators Warren Spector and Paul Neurath, Otherside’s upcoming stealth game is launching in what some could call a “lite” form. With an introductory campaign and two playable thieves, Otherside is hoping that then cheap pricetag will cause more players to jump in and help direct the title’s future.
“It’s not really about recouping the cost, to be frank,” director Jeff Hickman told us. “I mean, business is business, and, you know, I’ll let the accountants deal with that.” Instead, the goal—after a quite tumultuous development period—is to get fans in so the team can make the game those players actually want.
“Getting the game into players’ hands and seeing how they actually feel about things is critically important,” he continued. “And I think that’s that way for any game. And yes, we’ve done testing. Yes, we’ve gotten little beta tests going on to normal, regular players, but getting our game into mass amounts of people’s hands so that we can get real feedback, especially as we think about what the future looks like [is critically important]”.
Hick explained that the team has been embroiled in discussions “about value proposition for six months now”. Thick as Thieves’ introductory campaign is made up of sixteen missions with a degree of randomisation, especially on harder difficulties, offering players the ability to replay tasks. “I want people to get into the game and go, ‘I paid less than a cup of coffee for this game, and it’s fun, and it’s high production quality,” Hickman added.
While Thick As Thieves is planned to release in a form where players will be able to help shape its future, it’s not releasing as an early access title. “They have a bunch of rules about what early access means,” Hickman said. “And they’re a little constraining to what we want to do.”
The director explains that the rules of early access dictate that devs should have a clear idea of where they’re going, but Thick as Thieves doesn’t. While there is content in development for post-launch and ideas, the team doesn’t “know exactly what our roadmap looks like for the next year or two or three years”.
If players like co-op, then the developers will double down on the game’s co-op features. On the other hand, if players “are screaming about PvP”, then they will focus on adding PvP. “We have a whole bunch of baseline plans,” he said, “but none of them are set in stone. And so for us, it’s like, how do we put this in players hands? How do we charge a little bit to see what the price point feels like?”
Hickman explains that Thick as Thieves is harder than most games to bring to market. It’s a game essentially in a genre of its own, only truly preceded by the Thief series its spiritually succeeding. Even then, it’s unique, and forging a path forward is more wisely done with the help of players that know what they want from the game. Whether or not that gamble will pay off, however, we will see.
Thick as Thieves launches on Steam on May 20th, 2026. A console launch is planned for the title, but there is no official release date yet.
