Active Matter Brings Three-Player Extraction Co-Op to PS5

Active Matter launches on PS5 on September 15, bringing Matter Team's extraction shooter to consoles with solo play, three-player squads, PvE raids, and PvPvE raids.

Published by Gaijin Entertainment, the game sends operatives into unstable zones where realistic firearms collide with monsters, strange objects, and anomalies capable of distorting gravity and space. Players enter each raid looking for active matter and other valuable equipment, then have to make it back out safely with what they have collected.

Active Matter supports solo players as well as squads of up to three, with its extraction structure split between Open and Isolated Raids.

Open Raids are the more competitive option. Squads enter the same unstable zones as other human operatives while also dealing with monsters and environmental threats. Everyone is searching for valuable resources, completing objectives, and trying to extract with their equipment before another team takes it from them.

Isolated Raids remove rival player squads and put the focus on PvE. The mode keeps the same broader idea of entering a dangerous zone, completing objectives, collecting equipment, and reaching extraction, but allows groups that primarily want co-op to avoid encounters with other players.

That choice makes the PS5 release more flexible than an extraction shooter built entirely around competitive encounters. Players interested in PvP can enter shared raids, while friends looking for co-op can tackle the multiverse without another human squad waiting for them.

The environments are where Active Matter moves away from a conventional military shooter. Active matter is a substance capable of bending time and space, leaving parts of the game's multiverse physically unstable.

Matter Team says anomalies can alter gravitational force and the shape of spaces while players are moving through them. Raids also contain humans and creatures changed by exposure to active matter alongside strange objects inspired by paranormal fiction.

Weapons and equipment are modeled after recognizable real-world military hardware, but the places players take them into can stop behaving normally. That creates situations where fighting another squad is only part of the danger. An extraction route can also involve hostile creatures, unusual environmental conditions, and spaces that do not follow the rules players expect.

The game currently includes locations such as a closed Soviet island, a Central Africa quarantine zone, and a deteriorating North American city, with Matter Team planning to expand the fractured multiverse after launch.

PS5 players will not be locked into one cross-platform matchmaking pool when Active Matter launches. Matter Team has confirmed three crossplay options: matchmaking only with the same platform, console matchmaking between PlayStation and Xbox, or a combined pool containing PC and console players.

The separate queues let console players avoid PC matchmaking if they prefer while still allowing PlayStation and Xbox users to play together. Crossplay is also supported in Isolated Raids, allowing friends on different systems to team up for PvE without entering competitive Open Raids.

Active Matter launches on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam on September 15. On PlayStation, the release gives players access to the same core extraction structure with the option to play alone, form a three-person squad, or choose how widely they want cross-platform matchmaking to reach.