Windrose enters Steam Early Access, with full release still years away

Windrose, the co-op pirate survival sandbox from Kraken Express, is now in Steam Early Access. The game focuses on PvE multiplayer and drops players into an Age of Sail setting where they explore, fight, and survive across both land and sea. The game launched with an impressive 24 hour peak of 69,544 concurrent players.

According to the official post, the studio expects Windrose to stay in early access for around two to three years before reaching version 1.0. That gives players a pretty clear idea of the timeline: this is the start of a long open-development stretch, not a quick stop on the way to launch.

Windrose has been on the radar for a while, including under its previous name, Crosswind. It was also once pitched with MMO ambitions, but the developers later moved away from that and narrowed the focus to a PvE survival sandbox with multiplayer.

The game’s Steam page describes the current version as an early access build rather than a finished release, so anyone jumping in now should expect the usual work-in-progress caveats. If you want a broader look at where the project is headed, the Steam page also lists the planned development window.