Used Cars Simulator on Xbox Series X|S and PC: Play Anywhere, Price and Steam Early Access

The Xbox launch isn't the whole story, though. PC players have had this game for well over a year. Here's what the Xbox release actually changes and what it doesn't.

What's new, and what's been out since 2025​

Used Cars Simulator isn't a brand-new game. On Steam it went into Early Access on April 9, 2025, with DreamWay Games as developer and PlayWay S.A. as publisher. Steam lists a planned Early Access exit date of October 9, 2026. That date is still two weeks away, so treat it as a plan, not something that has happened.

So the September 2026 news is really the console release and the arrival of an Xbox/Microsoft Store edition that includes Play Anywhere. It is not the game's first appearance on PC. Microsoft isn't the only console maker involved either. Back2Gaming reports that Used Cars Simulator launched on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on September 25, publisher PlayWay says, and that the console editions are available through the PlayStation Store and Microsoft Store.

Summary: Console players get a new game. PC players get a second place to buy one they may already own.

Xbox Store details at a glance​

Pricing: check your own region​

TheXboxHub reported £16.74 in the UK. The captured US Xbox Store listing showed $19.99. Prices and promotions vary by region and time; check your local storefront before buying.

What Play Anywhere means here​

Microsoft's Xbox Play Anywhere FAQ says an eligible digital purchase through the Xbox or Windows Store grants the Xbox and Windows PC versions. The captured Xbox listing marks Used Cars Simulator as a participating game and lists Xbox cloud saves.

Two things to be clear about:

• Check your storefront entitlement. Microsoft describes Play Anywhere for eligible digital purchases through the Xbox or Windows Store. A Steam purchase is separate; do not assume it grants an Xbox Store entitlement. Steam lists its own features: Steam Cloud, achievements, leaderboards and Family Sharing.
• Some things aren't confirmed. The Xbox listing doesn't say whether the Xbox edition exactly matches the current Steam Early Access build, and it doesn't cover performance. It also doesn't publish PC hardware requirements for the Xbox PC version.

For reference, Steam's minimum spec is Windows 10 64-bit, an i3-4130 or FX-8350, 8 GB of RAM, a GTX 1050 Ti or R9 280 and 20 GB of storage. Steam adds that requirements may change as development continues. That's a rough guide, not a promise about the Microsoft Store build.

Summary: If you play on both an Xbox and a Windows PC, the Xbox Store version is the one that covers both. If you already own it on Steam, you're buying it again.

How the game plays​

The Xbox listing describes a simple, somewhat shady loop. You'll fix up cars, put them up for sale, grow your business in an old shed, drive around an abandoned city, drink beer, and wander the desert with a metal detector.

Each deal follows a clear sequence:

• Source it: Check the car's condition, negotiate the price, and if everything looks good - just buy it.
• Fix it up: repair dents, order and fit missing parts, wash it and repaint it.
• Sell it: list the car and put the profit toward the next one.

There's also a crime option. The store page says there are many ways to get cars, and cheerfully admits they're legal only until the police catch you. The story starts at your local bar, where you meet a woman in a red dress. All of this is fictional game content, not a guide to trading real cars.

Tips from the developer (not a review)​

DreamWay Games' head of marketing, Joanna Berezowska, wrote an Xbox Wire guide with five tips. Keep in mind this is the developer promoting its own game, not independent testing:

• Inspect before you buy. A cheap asking price can hide dents, missing parts and repair bills that wipe out your profit.
• Fix the real problems first. Sort out damage and missing parts before paint and customisation. Not every car needs a perfect restoration.
• Keep your money moving. Find, buy, repair, sell and reinvest. Don't hold on to cars you've grown attached to.
• Get out of the shed. You can explore, meet characters, do quests and go metal detecting in the desert.
• Don't wreck your stock. The physics sandbox has drifting, jumps and leaderboards, but crashing a car you've just restored is a bad move if you want to sell it.

Should you buy it?​

This is our own analysis, not a review. The biggest question is the game's development stage. The PC version is still in Early Access, the developer is aiming for a full release in October, and Steam's own FAQ warns the price may go up by about 50% after Early Access ends. Console buyers are arriving right as the game heads toward a "finished" release, so the version you buy now may not be the final one.

Community reaction on Steam gives some context. The all-time rating is "Mostly Positive" (79% of 1,155 reviews), and recent reviews are "Very Positive," though that's based on only 20 of them. Those numbers reflect the PC version. They say nothing about how the console versions run. We have not tested the console version, and the sources captured for this article do not include independent console testing.

There's also plenty of competition. Car-flipping sims are crowding onto Xbox, and TheXboxHub notes that Car Dealer Simulator is now available on Xbox Series X|S and PC, and Play Anywhere with a very similar buy-fix-sell loop. What sets Used Cars Simulator apart is the open-world driving, the crime and police chases, and the physics sandbox.

The bottom line: A single-player car-flipping sim with Play Anywhere, cloud saves and achievements is a sensible buy for Xbox and Windows players, as long as you know the game is still finishing Early Access, check your local price, and don't expect a Steam copy to carry over. In other words, inspect it before you buy it, which is advice the game itself would give you.

Correction (September 27, 2026): An earlier version claimed a temporary US discount and a pre-order label that the captured storefront evidence did not establish. We removed those claims and clarified the scope of our Play Anywhere and console-review statements.