The Legend of California release date: Jeff Kaplan's survival shooter is still in alpha

The Legend of California has no release date yet. Kintsugiyama, the independent studio of former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan, lists its open-world survival shooter as Coming soon on Steam for Windows PC, with no price. The game is still in alpha, and the studio has been running playtests on Steam since it announced the game in March 2026.

When will The Legend of California come out?

Kintsugiyama hasn’t said. When it opened the first alpha in March 2026, the studio said it planned a larger beta over the summer and an Early Access release later in 2026. That changed after the first test. Kaplan wrote that the game “currently doesn’t hit the level and quality of performance” the team wanted, so the studio decided to keep it in alpha and focus on stability.

The studio has stuck to that line since: in its updates, it says it would rather take the time to get the game right than rush it out. It has not announced a new Early Access window, a beta date or a price.

Every playtest so far

1. Mar 18, 2026Kintsugiyama announces the first public alpha on Steam
2. Mar 26, 2026First public alpha starts on Steam, with hundreds of players
3. Mar 30, 2026Alpha ends; the studio keeps the game in alpha to fix performance
4. Jun 12, 2026Alpha 3 starts, with stability and performance fixes and new strongholds
5. Jun 15, 2026Alpha 3 ends; the studio says it beat its technical goals
6. Sep 17, 2026Alpha 4 starts, a day longer, with new players from the Steam signup list
7. Sep 21, 2026Alpha 4 ends
8. Oct 17, 2026Developer livestream with Jeff Kaplan and Tim Ford

The first alpha went well with players, if not with the servers. Kaplan wrote that the average tester played for 9 hours, but the game fell short of the studio’s concurrency and performance goals. After Alpha 3 in June, the team said the game had exceeded its technical expectations, and it shifted to fixing bugs and adding content.

Alpha 4 in September added a new stronghold, Rattlesnake Junction, Sangre Élite invasions of strongholds across the map, item quality tiers with new legendary and rare items, a PvP server ruleset, a player ping system and rebuilt stretches of coastline at Big Sur, Monterey and Mendocino.

How to join the next playtest

Click Request Access on the game’s Steam store page while logged in. Everyone who played a previous alpha is automatically invited back, and the studio adds new players from the Steam signup list for each test. If you’re picked, you get a Steam notification and email, and the client shows up in your Steam library. The studio has not announced the date of the next playtest.

What kind of game is it?

The Legend of California is an open-world action-survival shooter set on a mythical Island of California during the gold rush. You explore, gather, craft, hunt, take down bandit camps and build your own ranch, with a mine and stables. You play on persistent online servers, alone or in a company of up to four players who share resources, buildings and progress, and PvP is optional.

The world is built to reset every month, so progression is meant to be fast. In Alpha 3, the studio said only 5.9% of players reached Tier 3 and 2.8% reached Tier 4, and most spent their time in Tiers 1 and 2.

For other big games still waiting on a date, see our list of upcoming games in 2027.

This page is updated as soon as Kintsugiyama announces the Early Access date, the price or the next playtest.