Mob Entertainment has announced that Escape From Playtime, a co-op horror game set in the Poppy Playtime universe, will launch in Steam Early Access on October 21st.
The date was revealed on September 20th during the PC Gaming Show Tokyo Direct, a livestreamed showcase of upcoming PC games. A new trailer was shown alongside the announcement.
Steam Early Access lets players buy and play a game while it is still in development. Mob Entertainment, the studio behind the Poppy Playtime horror series, has not yet shared pricing or said how long the game will stay in Early Access. Escape From Playtime is set before the events of Poppy Playtime: Chapter 1. Players control the Smiling Critters, a line of small toys with wide, fixed grins that first appeared in Chapter 3.
The game can be played solo or with up to four players. Each run sends the team into part of the abandoned Playtime Co. factory to collect resources for a mysterious figure known only as ‘the Voice’. The release claims the materials will help build a home for toys that prove themselves loyal and useful.
Mob Entertainment has described it as a survival horror extraction game. In extraction games, players enter a dangerous area, gather items and then have to get back out alive to keep them.
What players can expect
The factory is patrolled by rejected Playtime Co. creations. To avoid them, players can hide, create distractions, take alternate routes and solve puzzles. Tools and clues are scattered across areas including classrooms, warehouses and testing labs.
The game also uses proximity voice chat, meaning players can only hear teammates who are close to them in-game. Talking is key to co-ordinating a run, but according to the release, a careless whisper can also draw danger straight to the group.
Levels are procedurally generated, so the layout changes from run to run. In the game’s story, the Voice is said to be responsible for reshaping the factory. A ‘Mini Mode’ is also included. Because the Critters are toy-sized, players crawl, jump and climb through gaps and spaces that would be out of reach in the main series.
The studio has teased a link between the runs and the wider Poppy Playtime story, with the Voice’s motives left unclear. The release sums up the mystery with a question: ‘You are helping build something, but what, and why?’
Poppy Playtime’s growing universe
Poppy Playtime launched in 2021 as an episodic single-player horror game set in an abandoned toy factory. Its first villain, the blue plush monster Huggy Wuggy, quickly went viral online, particularly with younger audiences. The series has continued in chapters since then, with Chapter 4 arriving in January 2025.
This is not Mob Entertainment’s first attempt at multiplayer within the franchise. In 2022, it released Project Playtime, a free-to-play spinoff in which one player controls a monster hunting a team of six survivors.
Escape From Playtime takes a different approach, with players working together against AI-controlled threats rather than each other.
