Bulkhead Interactive has announced it is moving WARDOGS’ early access release forward, with the tactical FPS now targeting a launch later this summer. The studio cited overwhelmingly positive feedback from its closed alpha testers as the reason for pulling the date forward, with players reporting that performance and optimisation had exceeded their expectations and, most importantly, that the game is simply fun to play.
WARDOGS’ early access release window moves closer into the summer
Previously, the original release window for WARDOGS early access was later this year, meaning a likely September to December window for the devs. Moving it into the summer means it could arrive anytime between now and August.
We do know that WARDOGS is going to be at the Future Games Show at around 7PM UTC on Saturday June 6th, so we should get some more official news on what to expect from that.
The confidence comes from the recent tests the devs have been rolling out. They have been running a range of different testing criteria covering specific hardware, gameplay tests, and other such things. They invited a handful of players for one test the other month and have since been running larger windows with more players over the last few days and weeks. The devs also held a showcase recently where players gave positive feedback, with one of the developers visibly happy with what they were hearing on camera. So it does seem rather genuine that the feedback is positive and the game is in a good spot.
That said, the devs are candid about their expectations. They expect early access to be popular at launch and then drop off, with the aim of retaining a few thousand players each day to keep the servers populated, similar to the player base levels of Hell Let Loose, Squad, and games of that calibre.
It also comes at a time where its newly releasing Team 17 published sister shooter, Hell Let Loose: Vietnam, had to delay its release date by two months. So, there’s certainly a window where these games can co-exist with each other. I’d like to think T17 has got this covered well for both games to succeed
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Craig Robinson
Craig Robinson is an experienced gaming and esports writer with nearly a decade of coverage experience since 2015. With a background in software engineering, he combines his journalistic expertise with a strong understanding of technical SEO and web development fundamentals. He’s passionate about covering MMO games, competitive esports, and crafting guides that help players get the most out of their favorite titles.
He's been writing about gaming and esports for over 10 years, which started as for fun project during university. He has since developed his skill set, contributing to newsrooms coverage of key games and event, and blending evergreen content strategy and a solid grasp of content marketing fundamentals. His work has appeared in Esports News UK, Gamer Guides, theEscpaist, and VideoGamer, and he now contributes to Gamehub's review team. When he’s not writing, Craig can usually be found running, at the gym, or tinkering with coding projects to keep his GitHub active.
