Airframe Ultra Release Date: Nov 5, Price and Platforms

Steam store screenshot: Videocult / Akupara Games

Airframe Ultra price: $12.99, or $9.74 for two weeks

The price came from Buddy, Akupara's head of publishing, in the October devlog on Steam on October 30: "Airframe Ultra will release for $12.99." He added that "It'll be 25% off for the first 14 days, so if you pick it up on launch, it'll be $9.74." Outside the US, Akupara says it is "working with a third party to ensure that we're charging fair prices for folks overseas" instead of using Steam's automatic currency conversion, so expect regional prices that are not a straight exchange-rate copy of $12.99.

When we checked Steam's store data on November 1, the page still listed no price, so until the store updates, the devlog is where the official figure comes from. Eneba, the key shop we use for buy links, had no listing for Airframe Ultra on November 1, so this article has no buy button; the official Steam page is the place to check the final number.

PC only for now: Steam, Epic and GOG

Press coverage of the September 6 date announcement lists three stores: Playority says it "will launch on November 5 for PC via Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG", and The Ongaku names the same three. GOG already has a coming-soon page. Steam lists the game for Windows only.

Console players get no date. In the Beta 5 recap on September 18, co-creator James Primate wrote that "Airframe is intended as a multiplatform game" and that he doesn't consider it released "until we have the console versions out". That is a promise of intent, not a schedule, so we wouldn't wait on a console version to decide.

What's in the launch build

Videocult's pitch, from the Steam page: "Down here, you've got a chop shop Airframe, a rusted machete, and blood on the motorway." The Beta 5 recap explains how a session is structured. In the Circuit, "you're racing across three rounds, fighting for points". Around that sits a Reputation system: "You start as a low-level nobody", and gear and bike parts unlock over what Akupara calls "a multi-week climb". During the betas everything was unlocked so testers could compare bikes; at launch it isn't.

Image: Videocult / Akupara Games, Steam store screenshot

The same recap lists what changes from the last beta. "Single races and custom lobbies are coming back for launch." A new Circuit/Gutter tutorial teaches a match "through the lens of a fully playable arcade version of the game". XP is no longer tied to Ranked ("XP won't be limited to Ranked"), because, in Akupara's words, the game is meant to be a "chaotic, couch co-op style game". Beta testers get the beta racers' cosmetics through an in-game code system, but the bikes themselves still come through progression. One thing the team deliberately left out of the tutorial: the airbrake, which the October devlog calls "advanced tech" that the team wants players to "discover and share among themselves".

The free demo (Steam app 3434860) that ran during October's Steam Next Fest was still listed on the store page on November 1; our Next Fest co-op demos roundup covers other multiplayer demos from the same event.

Image: Videocult / Akupara Games, Steam store screenshot

Videocult's own release date trailer shows the racing and the weapons together:

Video: "Airframe: Ultra | Release Date Announcement Trailer", from Videocult's YouTube channel.

Is Airframe Ultra single-player?

This is the question to settle before you buy. Steam's store data tags the game Single-player, alongside Online PvP, Online Co-op and split-screen PvP and co-op, and Noisy Pixel describes multiplayer as "online play alongside local split-screen matches". What nobody official has described is a real offline mode against computer racers.

Players have been asking. In a Steam discussion on October 20, IPSEEEEEN wrote: "I wont buy the game until I have confirmation from developers of a real offline mode against CPU, bots, AI." Another poster in the same thread pointed out that the store says single-player "but sometimes the wrong info is put out". On November 1 that 12-reply thread still had no developer answer. The demo didn't settle it either: Major Jin Lang wrote on October 21 that "I enjoyed the demo riding around by myself", but that it felt "a bit empty" without other enemies or players, and on October 29 Skwerley asked of the current demo, "Just a tutorial? like word?"

The case for it comes from the same forum. Syzygy, on October 27: "it nails the Jet Moto unique feeling of racing, it's like Jet Moto meets Twisted Metal". If that's your kind of evening, our best co-op games list has more to play with a friend on the same sofa.

PC requirements, controller and Steam Deck

The Steam page asks for very little, plus a broadband connection either way.

Steam lists full controller support and the note "Gamepad highly recommended for optimal steering control". There is a keyboard option, but a developer, riv otter, put it plainly on October 29: "So KBM is supported for accessibility but we recommend playing on controller." Anna Curser, in the same thread, said the gamepad warning "made me uninstall the demo instantly". Plan on a pad.

Valve had not rated Airframe Ultra for Steam Deck, Steam Machine or Steam Frame on November 1: all three came back as unknown, which Valve defines as "We haven't checked this game for compatibility yet." For where the Frame stands, see our Steam Frame price and games page.

The patch plan after November 5

Akupara laid out the post-launch cadence on September 18 and repeated it on October 30: weekly bug fixes ("Not every week will include a bug fix patch", but the team looks at bugs every week), monthly balance patches and a bigger content update "every few months". The October devlog says the work before launch has been "entirely on polish and bugfixes", and that the team has already "spent some time working on the first post-launch update". Launch week also brings Eight Days to Infamy, a community event for fan art, cosplay and clips, with prizes that include "a commission from Esteban (AFU's key art artist), a custom PC case, and a helmet with signatures from everyone on the team".

Our call on day one

$9.74 for Videocult's follow-up to Rain World, with split-screen and online play from day one, is an easy yes if you have someone to race. The 14-day discount also leaves room to wait: if solo play is what you care about, give it a week of player reports and still buy at the launch price. The two weak spots are the ones the studio hasn't addressed: no confirmed offline mode against bots, and a game built for a gamepad, with keyboard support there "for accessibility".

What we checked, and when

On November 1, 2026, we read the 15 most recent of Airframe Ultra's 34 developer announcements on Steam in full (the October 30 devlog for the price, the September 18 Beta 5 recap for the launch changes) and searched all 34 for bots, offline or single-player play, which none of them mention; the Steam store data for date, platforms, specs, languages and tags, Valve's Deck compatibility report, GOG's catalog, four Steam discussion threads and coverage from Noisy Pixel, The Ongaku, Playority and Cyberstopia. We also checked Eneba for a key. Nobody at GameBrief has played Airframe Ultra or its demo, so everything about how it plays here comes from Videocult, Akupara and the players quoted.

References

• Airframe Ultra on Steam: date, platforms, specs, tags, languages
• Airframe Ultra announcements on Steam: October devlog (price, discount), Beta 5 recap (launch changes, post-launch plan), 100,000 wishlists
• Airframe Ultra, Akupara Games
• Airframe Ultra on GOG
• Airframe Ultra November 5 release date, Noisy Pixel
• Airframe Ultra, The Ongaku
• Airframe Ultra release date, Playority
• Steam discussion: offline mode and bots
• Steam discussion: keyboard and mouse
• Steam Deck Verified, Valve
• Airframe: Ultra Release Date Announcement Trailer, Videocult on YouTube