Wardogs Release Date Spotted During Dev Stream

The brains at BULKHEAD have been toiling away at Wardogs for quite some time now, but they have been shy about giving us a release date. That is, until a keen-eyed viewer picked up a conspicuous sign during the latest dev stream by CEO and executive producer Joe Brammer.

According to the small sign spotted during the broadcast, there are "48 working days until launch." That might mean Wardogs is coming out on September 9. As pointed out by a viewer, this could also be referencing September 10, as BULKHEAD is based in the UK, where August 31 is a bank holiday.

If the early September date is confirmed, it would mean that Wardogs is cutting it close with its projected late summer release date, but not by any significant amount.

A Cross of Battlefield and Counter-Strike

In a world that is teeming with first-person shooters of all flavors, complete innovation becomes rarer and rarer, but Wardogs seems to mix in the lessons from other games to make something original.

According to earlier devlogs, Wardogs will play out in a large-scale three-way team fight for control. The format has most recently been validated by Gray Zone Warfare, where players are split between three mercenary factions operating from equidistant bases.

On the other hand, the actual scale of Wardogs leans more towards games like Squad, where players have a fairly large map to work with, and rely heavily on vehicles to get things done.

The vehicle mechanics feel very familiar to those of Battlefield, but both those and the infantry gameplay are buffed with a layer of accessible realism rather than DICE's more spin on things.

Now, while all of that is fun, the most interesting twist in Wardogs is that you bankroll that war all by yourself, using (virtual, fake) cash instead of abstract points for progression.

Shooters using some sort of market is nothing new, from Counter-Strike to Escape From Tarkov, but having a live economy in a large-scale game like this completely turns things around, as everything from a bullet to an attack helicopter is paid for out of pocket.

To illustrate in familiar terms, take the usual scenario where you, an anti-tank gunner, are running around and see a helicopter flying by. In anything from ARMA Reforger to Battlefield 6, most players take aim and try the cheeky shot with a rocket launcher. After all, what is a single rocket versus a whole helicopter?

That dynamic of taking out something expensive with a cheap weapon will still exist in Wardogs, but since rockets will presumably be expensive, and you had to work hard to buy them, odds are you won't be firing them willy-nilly at anything that flies. On the other hand, the helicopter was also paid for by someone, and they will likely be less inclined to lose it trying to mow down a single infantryman in a field.

If things shake up according to BULKHEAD's plan, it looks like they will have managed what has thus far been nearly impossible: an approachable, fairly realistic, large-scale shooter where the big picture overrides small skirmishes.

Wardogs has recently conducted a closed playtest with about 4000 players, and though relatively little footage has leaked, those who played the game have showered it with praise for its gameplay, progression, and synergy between vehicles and infantry.

The game has big shoes to fill, but unless something dramatic happens by the end of the summer, there's a good chance Team17 has bet on a winning horse for the tactical shooter race. Wardogs will be available for PC via Steam.