Active Matter Connect With Steam: Linking Guide

Yes, you can connect your Gaijin account to Steam, and if you bought the paid Early Version from Gaijin Store you get the Steam edition for free by claiming it before November 23, 2026. Linking also moves your launcher progress to Steam, so you do not start over on the Steam side. The limits matter just as much: shared progress exists only between Steam and Gaijin.Net on PC, console profiles stay separate, and after linking you can only upgrade your edition through the Steam Store. This page walks through who qualifies, how the claim works, and what happens to progress, editions and refunds, with every claim dated as of September 21, 2026.

Who gets a free Steam edition

The offer was announced on August 25, 2026, ahead of the Steam launch, and it applies to players who bought the Early Version through Gaijin Store. Owners have until 90 days after that announcement to claim, which is November 23, 2026, and the Steam version became playable on September 15, 2026, the day the game launched. The scope is worth reading carefully: the announcement names Gaijin Store Early Version purchases, Elite Squad bonus keys redeemed by friends, and nothing else, so playing the free Steam demo is not one of the qualifying routes.

What you receive mirrors what you bought. Elite Squad owners get the Steam version with the same bonuses for themselves but without the extra keys, and friends who activated Elite Squad bonus keys get the Standard Edition instead. Owners of the old Premium Edition receive the Deluxe Edition, because the official FAQ states Premium was replaced by the upgraded Deluxe tier that all Premium owners now get. Buying on Steam after launch is a normal purchase and needs no linking at all.

Official screenshot, © Matter Team / Gaijin Network Ltd.

How to connect the two accounts

The official instructions are deliberately short: go to the dedicated page and sign in with the Gaijin account you used to purchase Active Matter. There is one trap that people hit, spelled out in the same announcement. If the Gaijin account you played the launcher version on is already linked to a Steam account through another Gaijin game, you must use that same Steam account; using a different one means your progress will not transfer.

This is a real workflow, not a rumour. In a Steam discussion thread opened on September 7, 2026, a player asked whether existing owners could connect their account so that ownership showed on Steam, and a developer reply marked as the thread answer pointed to the same official claim page and said it was possible (single source, that thread). The developer answer is the practical confirmation that the flow works for existing owners rather than only for buyers who had not yet chosen a storefront.

What progress actually transfers

Linking transfers your launcher progress into Steam, and afterwards you can play on PC either through the Gaijin.Net launcher or through Steam, with shared progress between the two. That is the only pair that shares anything: the official FAQ states plainly that shared progress is available only between the Steam and Gaijin.Net versions on PC. You also keep access through the launcher, so linking is not a migration that locks you out of your old client.

There is one overwrite to know about before you claim. If you already played the Active Matter demo on Steam, that demo progress is replaced by your progress from the launcher version. Nothing in the official material promises a merge, a choice between the two saves, or a way to recover the demo save afterwards.

Official screenshot, © Matter Team / Gaijin Network Ltd.

Editions, upgrades and refunds after linking

Once your accounts are linked, the Steam Store becomes your upgrade path: the announcement states that after linking you will only be able to upgrade your edition through the Steam Store. Before linking, the official FAQ describes upgrading your edition yourself in the Gaijin Store, so the practical order is to settle any upgrade first and claim the Steam edition second. The edition table on the official site also lists upgrade routes, with Standard, Advanced and Deluxe all upgradable up to Elite Squad.

Refunds follow the Gaijin Store rule, not the Steam rule, for the original purchase. The official FAQ says you can request a refund if you have played for less than two hours, by using the Refund button in your purchase history, and the money goes back to your Gaijin Store balance; more than two hours played means no refund is possible at all. One consequence is worth knowing before you refund an Elite Squad purchase: the Standard Edition keys your friends already activated are automatically deactivated.

Official screenshot, © Matter Team / Gaijin Network Ltd.

Console accounts stay separate

Linking solves PC ownership only. The official FAQ answers the console question with a flat no: you cannot transfer progress between the PC and console versions of Active Matter, because shared progress exists only between Steam and Gaijin.Net on PC. A PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S profile is therefore its own progression track, even though a single Gaijin account can be involved in both.

Crossplay is a different mechanism and still works, so separate progress does not mean separate servers. The official FAQ states that the game has cross-platform multiplayer, and console players can choose whether matchmaking searches their own platform only, consoles only, or any platform. Our crossplay page explains the matchmaking options, and the PS5 and Xbox pages list the platform-specific facts.

Deadlines and checks before you claim

The hard deadline is November 23, 2026, measured as 90 days from the August 25, 2026 announcement. Nothing in the official material suggests an extension, and the announcement names no alternative route for Early Version owners who miss it, because the offer is the free Steam edition itself. Check which Steam account your Gaijin login already trusts before you start, since that single detail decides whether your progress moves or stays behind.

Two smaller checks are worth doing on the same day. Confirm that the Gaijin account you will sign in with is the one you bought the game on, because that is what the claim matches against and purchase history is also where Elite Squad bonus keys are recorded, and settle any edition upgrade before you link, since upgrades move to the Steam Store afterwards. The current PC build is 0.4.0.122 as of September 21, 2026, so what you claim is the released 1.0 version with the launch-week patches rather than the older Early Version build.