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Early Access
February 22, 2026 at 06:42 AM
Comprehensive release article from Steam data and developer announcements
Windrose is planned for Steam Early Access in 2026. The exact release date has not been announced. The game launched a free demo during Steam Next Fest on February 17, 2026, which generated significant player interest and overwhelmingly positive reviews.
The Steam Next Fest demo produced striking numbers:
17,000+ peak concurrent players within days of launch
94% positive review rating from over 1,500 Steam reviews
840,000+ Steam wishlists, placing it in the top 35 most-wishlisted games on Steam
4-6 hours of gameplay across three islands, the first ship, and initial quests
The demo covers the opening section of the game: starting from being shipwrecked, gathering basic resources, building a shelter, acquiring your first ship, and exploring the first three islands. Naval combat and boarding are available. Demo progress does not carry over to Early Access. Players who complete the demo receive an exclusive spyglass cosmetic reward redeemable in the full game.
Windrose is buy-to-play with no microtransactions or live-service monetization. This is a deliberate choice following the pivot from the original Crosswind free-to-play MMO model. The price has not been announced.
The Early Access version is expected to include significantly more content than the demo, including:
Additional biomes beyond the starting area and Ashlands
Dedicated servers for persistent co-op worlds
Expanded talent tree and character progression
More dungeons, bosses, and story content
Additional ship types and customization options
Before the demo, Windrose Crew ran an alpha playtest under the Crosswind name starting June 25, 2025. Over 20,000 alpha keys were distributed. The alpha offered roughly 30 hours of content across three biomes, three bosses, and three ship types. The alpha provided the data that informed the pivot from MMO to PvE co-op.
Early Access launches on PC via both Steam (App ID: 3041230) and the Epic Games Store. Console versions are described as "possibly following later," with PC remaining the priority. The focus during Early Access is refining the PC version based on player feedback before expanding to other platforms.
Minimum specifications:
Windows 10 64-bit
Intel i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
16 GB RAM
GTX 1080 Ti or RX 6800
30 GB storage
DirectX 12
Recommended specifications:
Windows 11+ 64-bit
Intel i7-10700 or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
32 GB RAM
RTX 3080 or RX 6800 XT
30 GB SSD
The game supports 12 languages: English, German, Russian, Simplified Chinese, French, Italian, Spanish (Spain), Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), and Turkish. If performance is an issue, lowering shadow quality provides the biggest FPS improvement based on community testing.
