The Legend of California Early Access Pushed to 2027 After Alpha Performance Issues

The Legend of California won’t hit Steam Early Access in 2026 after all. Kintsugiyama confirmed during its first Reddit AMA on r/pcgaming that the open-world multiplayer survival game is now aiming for a 2027 early access launch.

Jeff Kaplan, the former Overwatch director and one of the studio’s co-founders, said the game was originally supposed to be in early access already, but Alpha 3 “had performance issues and didn’t feel up to our standards for release.” The team is now focused on hitting its server performance targets before opening the doors more widely. Kaplan said Kintsugiyama feels good about the feature and content side of the game.

The 2027 window had been mentioned earlier in a reply from the game’s official X account, but the AMA gave the studio a more direct chance to explain the delay. Early access is planned for Steam and the Epic Games Store, while console versions are not planned during the early access period.

The Legend of California is set in a mythical Gold Rush-era version of California, with players building ranches, mining, gathering resources, and exploring a shared world with MMO-style elements. During the AMA, Kaplan and fellow co-founder Tim Ford also said the team would like to add private servers, modding, pets, and a more detailed mine collapse and support system over time. Ford said the studio is also talking with Nvidia about possible GeForce Now support.

Testing is still moving ahead. Alpha 5 is scheduled to run on Steam from Thursday, November 12 through Wednesday, November 18. Anyone who joined a previous alpha is automatically included, while new players can wishlist the game on Steam and sign up for future playtests.

Further reading: Official Kintsugiyama Reddit AMA announcement