This one might have slipped under your radar; but it’s a game that looks like it’s worth paying attention to if you’re a fan of anything co-op and have a penchant for sims like Euro Truck Simulator or Snow Runner. PACS, that’s Post Apocalyptic Courier Service, was announced last year with publisher Playstack as an upcoming Death Stranding-esque title where you and three other friends wrangle plucky off-road trucks with sputtering diesel engines around the treacherous roads of an apocalyptic open-world to deliver packages. If that sounds appealing, then you’re in luck, because in recent dev log, developer Studio 316 confirmed that the game will get a closed playtest some time in Q1 2026.
In addition to this exciting announcement in the post, the devs show off some of the vehicle systems they’ve been working on for the game, including tire popping–or “tyre,” as they say, but we’ll get to that–and wear and tear on engines and batteries. Yes, as they harp on, the environment Studio 316 has crafted isn’t a friendly one, and there’s no triple-A after the world ends, so players will have to prudently maintain their trucks in order to get people their precious parcels. But rest assured, the game doesn’t require you or your friends to have a certification from your local trade school; the devs clarify that they’ve centered the game’s experience primarily around the goofy shared moments between players as opposed to making it anything hardcore. On that note, those of you who’ve been following the game for longer may recognize that the game’s re-announcement trailer featured at the Galaxies Showcase this last summer looks a bit different from the original one their team posted last year. That’s because, as the developers extrapolate on in the dev log, they decided to move away from the previously shown “hyper-realism” style and instead go for a more stylized look due to this lighter focus on simulation mechanics and the limitations of their studio, clarifying that:
The original trailer was made at a time when we weren’t funded, so we had minimal time and resources to bring something together that would, at the very least, showcase the core experience of the game (delivering packages in the apocalypse), so we could validate if there was a receptive audience.
PACS received the over 40 thousand wishlists on Steam last year, the lead developer suspects in post on Reddit, due to their marketing campaign on TikTok. According to him, about 95% of this statistic came from the trailer footage they quickly threw up on the platform, which they were not expecting. Previously, he said, the small UK-based studio put out some “highly targeted” adverts on LinkedIn to catch the eye of any prospecting publishers, and though they reached out to try to get media coverage, no one picked them up. Obviously, the studio’s doing much better now with the support of Playstack–who published Abiotic Factor, which won “Best Co-op” from PC Gamer this year–and development looks like it’s going smoothly. There’s no release date yet, but they encourage players to sign up for the playtest while they wait.