Expeditions: Samurai enters early access on 7 August with only its first act — and English is the only language

The story begins on 7 August. Its ending arrives in 2027

THQ Nordic's new Expeditions: Samurai trailer is full of story, steel, stealth and strategy. The important detail comes at the end: on 7 August the game enters early access on Steam, for PC only. The adventure starts that day, but it does not launch in full: only the first of four acts is included.

Campfire Cabal plans to release version 1.0 in Q1 2027. That build will contain all four acts, roughly 60 hours of play and more than 45 levels, according to material shared with press in June. Anyone buying in August will wait somewhere between five and eight months to reach the ending.

The setting works in its favour. Sengoku Japan has produced mountains of action games but very few turn-based tactical RPGs, leaving more room to surprise than the medieval Bohemia Warhorse has explored for years.

There is another important detail: Steam currently lists English as the only supported language. For a 60-hour RPG built around dialogue and decisions, that is a real barrier rather than a footnote.

The team had to start over just as Expeditions: Rome launched

To understand why this game exists at all, go back to January 2022. Expeditions: Rome launched on 20 January 2022 — 80 on Metacritic across 40 reviews, 81 on OpenCritic — and on that same day its studio, Denmark's Logic Artists, announced it was leaving games to make NFTs under a new name, Dynasty Studios. The team that had just shipped one of the year's best-reviewed tactical RPGs lost its studio on release day.

There are not many stranger exits in this industry.

That September, THQ Nordic founded Campfire Cabal in Copenhagen with part of that team. Creative director Jonas Wæver returned to lead it, joined by developers with experience on Hitman and Hunt: Showdown. The goal was straightforward: continue the Expeditions series from a new studio.

Embracer tried to close Campfire Cabal, but a small team kept the game alive

In August 2023, as Embracer cut costs after losing a deal valued at two billion dollars, the order came down to close Campfire Cabal. Wæver put it plainly: "This decision was not related to the work we've been doing at the studio but was made from a purely financial standpoint." The studio had been open for barely a year. If the pattern sounds familiar, it is the same one we covered at ZA/UM.

The closure was never completed. On 20 May 2025, THQ Nordic explained in a statement that a reduced team had continued working on the same project. Full production resumed in late March 2025. Expeditions: Samurai is the game that survived those cuts.

Co-op is in from day one, but nobody has said what it costs

The headline addition on 7 August is two-player co-op, with drop-in and drop-out play available from day one rather than promised for later. Stealth, environmental interactions, dynamic character portraits and full controller support are also included. Held back for 1.0 are the village rulership system, crafting, and a good chunk of the gear and missions.

The number everyone asks for first is still missing: there is no published price. The studio has only said that early access will cost less than the finished version. The publisher's most recent precedent is Titan Quest II, which entered early access in August 2025 at $29.99 with version 1.0 announced at $49.99.

What you buy on 7 August is the opening of the story and a chance to follow its development, not the complete game. It may be worth it, but waiting for the roadmap Campfire Cabal will publish before launch is the sensible move.