New open world, action-survival shooter from the creator of Overwatch gets its first public Steam playtest next week

Kintsugiyama – an independent studio founded by Overwatch lead Jeff Kaplan – has announced its debut game, The Legend of California, is getting a playtest that kicks off next week.

Earlier this month, former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan announced what he's been working on since leaving Blizzard. The studio Kintsugiyama and its debut game, The Legend of California, were announced via a short YouTube video. This was swiftly followed by a 10-hour livestream of the game by the developers to give players a better idea of what the game actually is.

Over on the game's Steam news page, the studio said: "The enthusiasm we've seen since The Legend of California was announced has been overwhelming in the best way possible, and we appreciate that so many of you have shown up for the game so early on."

The studio then announced that The Legend of California Alpha will be running from March 26 to March 30. The post adds that "This is an important moment for both the game and our studio, and we're excited to be able to share it with this community as well as welcome more players onto the Island of California."

The playtest is available to anyone to sign up for via the game's Steam page; however, the devs note that "The playtest itself will be very small, so that means that not everyone who signs up will be invited to play."

Thankfully, it's not the end of the world, as the Q&A section of the post notes that "We’re planning to host a much larger beta this summer, though, so there will be another opportunity to help us test the game before Early Access."

Overwatch co-creator Jeff Kaplan's new open-world FPS probably won't be free-to-play because "you need 8 billion players and 2 thousand devs cranking out f***ing keychains like a sweatshop."