Jeff Kaplan’s Kintsugiyama Announces “The Legend of California” Skills-Based Open World FPS With Online Multiplayer

Jeff Kaplan, of former Blizzard fame, having worked on Overwatch and World of Warcraft, has officially announced the first game in development at his newly formed Kintsugiyama studio. The Legend of California is a Western shooter with online co-op and PvP gameplay. The Legend of California is set in an alternate timeline version of California in which the state is discovered as an uninhabited island off the coast of the mainland USA. It will feature a hand-crafted world featuring real-world landmarks, like Yosemite and Death Valley, but interspersed with dynamic points of interest that will move around depending on the generated world seed.

In a recent appearance on the Lex Fridman podcast, Kaplan explains that he wants the game to feel like a world that you can live in, with gameplay mechanics often limited to survival games, like mining, exploration, crafting, and hunting. He says that the goal of the game is not to be historically accurate, but that the development team wanted to remain authentic to the aesthetic and feel of the historical gold rush time period. In terms of gameplay, Kaplan commented that the map will feature four difficulty levels, with different regions and POIs each getting a difficulty level assigned each time the world is generated anew. The Legend of California will launch in Steam Early Access in 2026, and it’s so far unclear if there will be a console version.

The Legend of California key features, as per the Steam page:

• Discover an expansive, ever-changing open world inspired by the gold rush era that features distinct biomes, challenging PvE encounters, and iconic California landmarks
• Master FPS combat that rewards precision and skill—whether you’re hunting wildlife to stay alive, taking down hostile encampments for some quick coin, or defending your territory against enemy players in optional PvP
• Leverage robust gathering and crafting systems to transform the Californian wilderness into everything you need to survive, from weapons for protection and tools for expansion to delicious meals to stay fed and ready
• Establish and expand your own ranch; build a mine, add stables, and unlock powerful new crafting stations to further customize your slice of the wild
• Play online on persistent multiplayer servers where you can forge your legacy solo or form a company with up to three other players, sharing resources, buildings, progress, and more