Windrose Becomes Indie’s Flagship Against AAA Releases

Windrose is the latest survival-crafting game from the humble new indie studio Kraken Express and has quickly become many gamers' new obsession. The game sees players embark on their very own pirate journey with friends, sailing ships across the high seas, discovering new biomes that harbor a tough boss and unique resources to help you discover your next location.

In only six days after launching in Early Access, the game has gone on to sell over a million copies thanks to strong word of mouth and an impressive demo to build hype. The breakout success of the game has left some industry experts wondering why Windrose is able to reach such a milestone so soon, when major AAA releases struggle to hit those numbers months after launch.

Not only is Windrose an excellent pirate game that will tap into your fantasies of swashbuckling and scoring some fine booty (of the hidden treasure variety), it's also a fantastic co-op game to play with friends, making it an easy recommendation for your fellow gaming pals.

To understand what makes Windrose so special and how it highlights Indie games' potential, we need to look at how Kraken Express created their game and impressively marketed it. It's also important to understand the state of AAA games right now and how sections of gamers are growing dissatisfied with what major studios are releasing. In many ways, Windrose is emblematic of the growing potential of Indie games right now, and offers a potential roadmap for AAA studios on how to get gamers excited about their games.

How Did Windrose Get So Popular?

Windrose's success can be contrasted with Highguard's famous downfall. While Highguard hid so much of what it was, betting on a surprise launch to capture intrigue and hype, Windrose was impressively transparent. Before its early access release, the pirate-themed survival game would release a Demo in February for players to easily dive into, which netted it some impressive early user reviews and word of mouth.

Comparison is another significant reason why the game has attracted such a passionate fan base so fast. Gamers have long chased a pirate game that could capture the same adventure Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag offered. After Ubisoft's own AAAA game, Skull and Bones, struggled to take off, Windrose has quietly stepped up to take its place as a rightful successor.

Windrose is a well-crafted survival game with plenty of activities to keep all kinds of players engaged. If you have a friend keen on Soulslike titles, you can pitch the game as "Elden Ring with Pirates." For survival-crafting fans, its glowing comparisons to Valheim only help spark curiosity for players. Even simple tasks like farming and fishing help build immersion and offer fun set pieces you can share with friends while playing.

Why Are Indies Able to Outpace AAAs?

A question some outlets and gamers have been asking is how indie studios have been able to outmatch AAA studios on major releases in recent years. It's a fair question, as titles like Balatro, Slay the Spire 2, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 have swept player count milestones and gaming awards in recent years.

In contrast, Sony and Bungie's most recent online shooter, Marathon, was marred with controversy and cynicism regarding its launch. While it netted some solid sales and boasted a fair, sustained player count, it was impossible to avoid discourse all too eager to label the game as a flop.

Where indies are met with excitement and passion, gamers are ready to be overcritical and eager to prey on a AAA's downfall. This isn't to say it's completely unwarranted. Indie and AA titles have shown off immense creativity and passion from their creators, who go on to foster strong communities. As opposed to AAA studios, whose live-service titles are often littered with expensive battle passes stuffed with less-than-impressive cosmetic items.

Given their multimillion-dollar budgets, these games live and die by their monetization system, and if they struggle to catch on and get players to spend, these games are likely to be shut down within a year after launch.

We've seen this most recently with titles like Highguard, Redfall, and most famously, PlayStation's Concord, which allegedly cost the studio $400 million USD to make, and failed to earn any money back. Several live-service games in planning at PlayStation have also been cancelled in recent years, including a Last of Us multiplayer game, a Spider-Man multiplayer game, and a God of War live-service title, whose cancellation resulted in the shuttering of beloved studio Bluepoint Games, renowned for their remakes of classic single-player games.

The biggest head-scratcher of all is that it's hard to imagine who these games were meant for. Developers at Arcane who worked on Redfall consistently pushed back against the live-service model, and the pressure to deliver killed all morale at the studio. Fans have also been vocal about their disdain over the Fortniteification of every multiplayer game being released, while craving more focused experiences with non-invasive monetization practices. So if the developers don't want to work on the game, and gamers don't want to engage with it, who are these titles for?

In saying all of this, it's important to note that there are far fewer AAA titles than there are Indie titles being released. According to SteamDB, 2,476 games were uploaded to Steam in March, with 1,434 of those games having the Indie label. Not every indie game will find an audience, and it's only in exceptional cases that build positive word of mouth (or infamous word of mouth) that they become breakout titles.

What Can AAA Learn From Windrose's Success?

Despite Windrose's lightning-in-a-bottle success, it'd be unwise for the AAA studios to ignore its impact.

Like with any game, good word of mouth is vital for a game to build a player base, and the sooner you can show off a refined product to build hype, the better.

Windrose is taking off because it's fulfilling a niche gamers have been craving to see filled for over 10 years. Too often, you see games attempt to chase trends and follow up on what the most popular game was at the time. Unfortunately, game development takes a long time, and market trends are changing rapidly. Think about how many battle royale games have been released in recent years, long after the boat has sailed on the genre?

Kraken Express's pirate experience succeeds where AAA is struggling, as it could be flexible with its approach. The game originally started as a PvP-focused free-to-play MMO, and went by the name Crosswind. However, after their first play test session in August 2025, the studio was able to take feedback on board and pivot the game into a co-op experience.

Not only did this pivot help to remove the stress of getting bodied by more experienced players, but it also allowed them to focus on socially-focused gameplay. The playtest also helped identify that players were far more keen on the base building and crafting systems, which makes for a cozier, more accessible experience to recommend to friends.

Of course, these pivots are even harder to make in AAA studios, given the several layers of bureaucracy that all decisions need to go through. However, it does come to show that taking player feedback early and refining the game to focus on what players are engaging with more goes a long way. It also helps to catch these issues before launch. That way, your studio won't have to update the game post-launch to get it into a healthy position, which always runs the risk of extra scrutiny after a bad public first impression.

It breaks my heart to think about the poor Highguard and Redfall devs who raised these issues to upper management, only to get shut down and then fired quickly after launch. Had these games been given more time to refine themselves behind the scenes into a new experience like Windrose, they might have become a successful comeback story like Final Fantasy XIV.

Why Windrose Continues Indie's Streak of Outperforming AAA

I highlighted earlier that the narrative that Indies are outperforming AAA studios is a form of survivorship bias that ignores the significant number of indie titles that go unplayed. In saying that, Windrose's success is a sign that the Indie scene is only becoming more mainstream for casual gamers.

According to the analyst firm NewZoo, the video game industry generated over $197 billion and is expected to increase by 7.5 percentyear-on-year. The Entertainment Software Association shared a report last year revealing that 51 percent of gamers are men and 48 percent are women, indicating that the perceived gender gap in gaming is closing and becoming more accessible to all.

There are several reasons for this that I can rant at length about (removal of third spaces, COVID necessitating online communication, cost of gaming becoming more accessible, you name it!) But one key reason is that indies occupy a solid niche for gamers that AAA can't reasonably sustain anymore.

Before, you'd see studios like Rockstar develop Austin Powers games for the Gameboy as a side project alongside major titles like Grand Theft Auto. Nowadays, AAA studios can only work on one or a few games at a time, as more money and developers are allocated to projects. Add to that, several veteran developers have left AAA studios (due to burnout or redundancy) to form new, passion-led indie companies.

Double AA games have existed in a strange limbo where major studios can no longer support mid-budget games anymore and now focus entirely on games with budgets ballooning into the hundreds of millions. This is where Indie titles have come in to fill the void, offering gamers tightly developed experiences at a more affordable price that won't demand hundreds of hours of playtime.

It helps that indie games are also prone to having immense viral potential, given their less sanitized approach. As we've seen with titles like Peak, Lethal Company, Stardew Valley, and more, which form a passionate fan base, thanks to their truly unique design.

Sure, mainstream AAA games are still top dog right now, as proven by how every major game studio is terrified of clashing with GTA 6's release in November this year, but Indies aren't too far behind. Thanks to immense talent flooding into the scene, the affordability of new game design tools, and more freedom to innovate in the space, we're being treated to some absolute gems of Indie titles.

It's no surprise Windrose has overtaken serious attempts by AAA studios to capture the Pirate-life experience in a game, especially when your competition is essentially shooting themselves in the foot. The toughest challenge the game will face is whether it will release out of Early Access within a year or two as promised, but given the early boost it's seen, it's sure to keep a dedicated fanbase for the next few months to come.