Windrose PC Gamer Review Controversy: What Happened (2026)

Updated 2026-10-16: this page now links the column itself and sources every sales, patch and server figure to Kraken Express's Steam posts; earlier claims we could not trace to the studio or Steam (an influencer's post, a Moscow server story, a peak-player figure and a Steam chart ranking) are removed.

What the column actually said

It wasn't a scored review. PC Gamer filed it under Features, as a first impression, and the complaints were specific. In those first hours almost anything on the starting islands could kill Fenlon in a couple of hits (boars, dodos, giant crabs), one missed parry sent him back to his beach hut, and the boat moves on the W key because there's no wind system. Co-op with a colleague kept locking up for seconds at a time or rubber-banding them around fights.

His summary line is the one that stuck: Windrose is "a survival game with a pirate skin," while Sea of Thieves, which the column calls "still going strong close to a decade after release," is a pirate game first.

Screenshot: Steam store page

How Windrose players took it

The pushback started on Windrose's own Steam forum. On April 15 a player posted the link under the title "Proof PC Gamer should go bankrupt," and the thread ran to 65 replies. Most of the first replies blamed the writer's skill rather than the game. One player wrote that they were "6 hours in and still exploring the starter isle," and that the writer "was trying to rush the game before his character was actually geared up."

It wasn't one-sided. Another replier said they "strongly agree with this report," calling Windrose one of "thoose streamer promoted hype games," and a third answered the whole thread with "At least Sea of Thieves works."

That last jab had a point that week. On April 19 Kraken Express posted a connectivity patch (version 0.10.0.3) after finding "certain ISPs blocking parts of our networking services," and added a manual connectivity server picker. The netcode trouble the column described was real, and the studio said so.

What the sales numbers said

Kraken Express posted every milestone on Steam:

• April 16: over 500,000 copies in 48 hours, with nearly 100,000 concurrent players the day before
• April 19: 1,000,000 copies in six days and over 200,000 concurrent players; publisher Pocketpair announced the same million
• May 14: 2,000,000 copies sold

None of that proves the column wrong. A game can grind too early and still sell well. It does show that most buyers weren't put off by the first four hours.

*Video: Windrose official YouTube channel*

Screenshot: Windrose gameplay footage (Kraken Express)

Where Windrose stands in October 2026

Six months on, Windrose is still in Early Access at $29.99. The latest patch is 0.10.0.9 from August 25, and the next big update, Ashlands, has a run of dev posts about ship customization (the newest on October 15) but no release date. Steam reviews across all languages sit at Very Positive. The Windrose complete guide covers the systems a four-hour session never reaches, and the Windrose roadmap tracks what Kraken Express has promised next.

Our take

We'd call it a fair column with bad timing. The early grind and the co-op stutter Fenlon hit were real, and the studio spent launch week fixing the second one. But a headline about reinstalling Sea of Thieves after four hours on launch day was always going to read as a dismissal, and two million copies later, plenty of players clearly found the survival loop worth the extra hours. If the grind is what worries you, our Windrose beginner guide and Windrose combat guide cover the parts that get easier once your gear catches up. Skip it only if you want Sea of Thieves' sailing-first sandbox, because that's not what this is.

How we checked this

We read the column itself, the Steam forum thread and Kraken Express's Steam announcements on October 16, 2026, and pulled the review total from Steam's review API the same day. Sales figures are the studio's own.

References

• Windrose on Steam: store page, price and Early Access status
• Windrose is out now in Early Access (Kraken Express, April 14)
• 500,000 copies sold in 48 hours (Kraken Express, April 16)
• 1,000,000 copies sold in 6 days and over 200,000 concurrent players (Kraken Express, April 19)
• Connectivity fixes and server selection, version 0.10.0.3 (Kraken Express, April 19)
• 2,000,000 copies sold (Kraken Express, May 14)
• Voyage to Ashlands: Ship Customization, pt.2 (Kraken Express, October 15)
• Pocketpair: Windrose reaches one million
• Steam forum thread on the column (April 15)
• Windrose patch notes tracker: every patch since Early Access