Revision 25

Crosswind was the original title of the game now known as Windrose. The game name change happened on December 4, 2025 during the December 2025 gameplay showcase broadcast. The studio simultaneously renamed from Crosswind Crew to Windrose Crew. The studio then renamed a second time to Kraken Express alongside the Early Access launch on April 14, 2026.

Announcement

Crosswind was announced on March 19, 2025 by publisher Forward Gateway and developer Crosswind Crew, an independent studio headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan with an undisclosed number of developers on the team. The game was revealed as a free-to-play survival MMO set in an alternate Age of Piracy, with a Steam page and playtest sign-ups opening simultaneously.

Original Vision

Under the Crosswind name, the game was planned as a free-to-play survival MMO with shared servers, PvP combat, and live-service monetization. Players would share the world with other crews, competing for resources and territory. The structure leaned toward a persistent shared-world online pirate game rather than a small-group survival sandbox. Each player had a procedurally generated archipelago with hand-crafted points of interest, and shared zones served as the MMO layer for PvE and PvP activities.

Devblogs

The team published five devblogs between April and August 2025, each covering a different aspect of the game:

Sea Shanties

Between devblogs, the studio released a "Shanties of Crosswind" music video in early April 2025 featuring in-game footage captured with a cinematic camera. All shanties were made in-house (no AI), including "Leave Her Johnny," "Blow The Man Down," "Drunken Sailor," "Rolling Down To Old Maui," "Good Morning Ladies," and "Whiskey Johnny."

Alpha Playtest

The alpha playtest launched on June 25, 2025 under the Crosswind name and ran for four weeks. Key numbers:

The alpha featured land combat, ship-to-ship combat, real-time boarding fights, three bosses with multiple difficulty tiers, and building with six material types. A Twitch streaming event ran from July 10 to July 13, 2025, where viewers could watch participating streamers play Crosswind for a chance to win alpha keys.

Alpha Reception

Content creators and early previews praised the alpha:

• Early previews compared it favorably against other recent big-budget pirate games, praising it for feeling like a real adventure with soul rather than a checklist of tasks

• The building system was singled out as impressive and fun

• Exploration was a major hook, with islands feeling distinct (swampy, tangled, sunbaked, barren)

The critical insight from the alpha: many players told the developers they were perfectly satisfied playing solo or with a small group of friends, enjoying traditional survival gameplay without needing a large-scale MMO environment. This feedback directly drove the pivot.

The Pivot (August 14, 2025)

On August 14, 2025, the studio published Devblog #5 announcing a major direction change:

Producer Philip Molodkovets later explained at Gamescom: "We realised during the Alpha test that in terms of amount of work and technical limitations, it would be very risky to keep pursuing this huge scope, so we decided to narrow it down a bit and make one thing right."

The devblog also revealed the Ashlands biome (volcanic landscapes with skeleton enemies, dungeons, and treasure buried under volcanic ash) and a reimagined Tortuga as a besieged outpost in constant conflict with the undead.

Gamescom 2025

A playable demo was available at Gamescom 2025 in August, and the team conducted multiple interviews. Key details revealed:

• Naval combat modeled on classic age-of-sail naval action, with ship steering, broadsides, and boarding

• Different ammo types, ship weak spots, and ricochet mechanics for damage avoidance

• Four confirmed biomes, each with distinct enemies, resources, recipes, and bosses

• NPC system with three types: Specialists (teach recipes), Workers (automate tasks), Officers (exclusive to ships, improve vessel capabilities, cannot die)

• Food uses a layered system where three food types simultaneously boost stats, with no starvation deaths

• A substantial amount of story content planned for Early Access (Chapter 1), described in interviews as potentially dozens of hours

• Team inspired by well-known survival-crafting and age-of-sail action games

Galaxies Autumn Show (October 23, 2025)

Crosswind unveiled a new gameplay trailer during the Galaxies Autumn show on Twitch. The trailer showcased ships, weapons, building sets, enemies, and locations. This points to exploration, strategic base building, intense combat, crew recruitment, and open-sea navigation.

First Rename (December 4, 2025)

The rebrand to Windrose reflected the new design direction. "Crosswind" carried associations with the MMO version and its PvP focus. "Windrose" (the compass rose on nautical charts) better communicated the game's new identity as an exploration-focused PvE adventure. The announcement came at the December 2025 gameplay showcase on December 4, 2025. The studio simultaneously renamed from Crosswind Crew to Windrose Crew. A new trailer showcased naval battles, sword-fighting combat, cannon fire, high-seas action, ship-to-ship transitions, and on-foot encounters. Two new weapons (greatsword and blunderbuss) and a new Grenadier enemy type were revealed in the same announcement.

Steam Next Fest Demo (February 2026)

The Steam Next Fest demo produced striking numbers and drove the game onto top wishlist charts:

Fan Fest (February 25, 2026)

A new "Raging Seas" trailer premiered at Fan Fest. The trailer showcased upcoming Early Access content including Tortuga as a playable location, additional ships, new weapons and armor, expanded building pieces, and new enemy types.

Second Rename and Pocketpair Deal (April 2026)

Alongside the April 14, 2026 Early Access launch, the studio renamed itself a second time from Windrose Crew to Kraken Express. The developers stated that the new name "just sounds cooler, otherwise, that's still us." Pocketpair Publishing (a Japanese publisher) joined Kraken Express as co-publisher for the Early Access release. Forward Gateway no longer appears as publisher on the Steam page after this change.

Early Access Launch (April 14, 2026)

Windrose launched in Early Access on April 14, 2026 at 8:00 AM UTC (4:00 AM EDT) on Steam, Epic Games Store, and Stove. The base game launched at $29.99 with a Supporter Bundle (soundtrack and wallpapers) at $39.99. Early Access is expected to last 1.5 to 2.5 years, with roughly 50 percent more content planned before the 1.0 release. Within the first two hours of launch, the game hit over 20,000 concurrent Steam players and a Very Positive rating.

Complete Timeline