The new hype shooter Wardogs is already a bestseller on Steam as a pre-order, and the developers give you 10 reasons why you shouldn’t buy the game.
BULKHEAD announced on August 11, 2026 the release date of their new shooter “Wardogs”.
The game will start in early access on September 10 and will cost 39.99 €. By the 1.0 release, the price will increase to 59.99 €.
With the announcement, the developers also released a video on YouTube, in which they name 10 reasons against buying Wardogs. They emphasize repeatedly that you should definitely return the game if you’ve bought it but don’t like it.
“We are the developers of Battalion 1944”
What are these 10 reasons? The reasons are really varied and sometimes very refreshingly honest. Here is a brief overview:
- Lack of content during early access
- The devs do not want to bring many new contents during the EA but focus on content such as the meta-game for the 1.0 release. The focus during EA is on balancing, fixes, etc., and not on content drops.
- The price in early access
- Bulkhead emphasizes that you should not buy the game if you find that 39.99 € is too expensive for the offered early access content. They say: Better wait until the game offers what you expect.
- Decreasing player numbers
- The developers expect that the player numbers will drop drastically in the months following the release. They hope to reach 3,000 to 5,000 concurrent players daily in the long run.
- Monetization
- While the developers promise that there will be no additional monetization during early access, they also state that they will need to cover ongoing costs after the 1.0 release if sales of the base game are no longer sufficient. They explain that it is possible that there could be some form of additional monetization in the future. Players should be aware of this so they are not disappointed later, even if it might take years.
- Graphics and performance
- The developers clearly state that Wardogs will not have the prettiest and most modern graphics nor the performance or FPS numbers of competitive shooters like Valorant or CS2. If you expect that or have an older system, you might not be happy.
- Shifting priorities in early access
- The studio does not want to deliver a roadmap or content on fixed dates but instead wants to shift priorities at some point during development and start testing things with the community.
- “We are the developers of Battalion 1944”
- Before the release of Wardogs, Bulkhead wants to be transparent and clearly states that you should not buy the game hastily if you no longer trust the studio after Battalion 1944.
- Context: Battalion 1944 was a competitive 5v5 shooter from Bulkhead that was funded via Kickstarter in 2016. The game had some issues at launch, including hit detection, various bugs, and server problems. Additionally, players criticized that new content was coming too slowly. Battalion 1944 quickly had very few players left. Ultimately, Bulkhead was criticized for rarely providing their Kickstarter backers with new information, especially regarding the promised console versions that were part of the Kickstarter campaign but never came.
- Before the release of Wardogs, Bulkhead wants to be transparent and clearly states that you should not buy the game hastily if you no longer trust the studio after Battalion 1944.
- VoIP (voice chat) between the three teams
- The developers expect that players will be trash-talking a lot in the chat and the player experience will scare off people who are sensitive to banter. They joke that they will do it too. Nonetheless, they draw a line and want to ban players who go overboard.
- Controller support
- Wardogs is primarily designed for mouse and keyboard. There will be some controller support in early access, but the focus is on mouse and keyboard. Accordingly, aim assist for controller players will also be very weak. The devs clearly say: If you do not want to play with controller players, do not buy the game.
- In-game deaths and your decisions have consequences
- If you mindlessly run into death without a learning curve, the game might frustrate you and you might prefer to play something else.
However, I was really positively surprised by the refreshing honesty and transparency about Battalion 1944. I knew about the topic and still did not expect them to mention it openly in this video. Instead, I expected some YouTube users to complain about this in the comments and say that this was the main reason against a purchase. Although this does not improve the situation for Battalion 1944, it at least shows in a small way that they are aware of their past and are dealing with it – and doing so openly, communicatively towards potential (new) customers. And especially the communication of the studio was a huge problem with Battalion 1944.
This is how the pre-orders started: With the announcement of the release, the sale of Wardogs also started. Players can now pre-order the game on Steam – and they did. Less hours after the sales launch, Wardogs was a bestseller on Steam both globally and in Germany.
Even before, the developers reported that over 800,000 players have the shooter on their Steam wish list. Additionally, the closed alpha has already received extremely positive feedback from testers: Wardogs impresses in the closed alpha so much that players say even Battlefield could pack it up
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