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Wardogs is an upcoming first-person shooter video game developed by Bulkhead and published by Team17. It was released into closed beta on 22 August 2026 and into early access for…
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Investigate this subjectWardogs (stylised in all caps) is an upcoming first-person shooter video game developed by Bulkhead and published by Team17. It was released into closed beta on 22 August 2026 and early access for Microsoft Windows on 10 September 2026, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S releases scheduled for 2028.
Wardogs is an upcoming first-person shooter video game developed by Bulkhead and published by Team17. It was released into closed beta on 22 August 2026 and into early access for Windows on 10 September 2026, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S releases scheduled for 2028.
Wardogs (stylised in all caps) is an upcoming first-person shooter video game developed by Bulkhead and published by Team17. It was released into closed beta on 22 August 2026 and early access for Microsoft Windows on 10 September 2026, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S releases scheduled for 2028. Inspired by the "King of the Hill" custom gamemode mod for Arma 3, Wardogs has players join one of three mercenary factions fighting a multi-sided battle over a randomised control zone. In-game, 100 players are split into three teams of 33 players each.
Wardogs features a quasi-virtual economy in which players have in-game cash and must manage their finances to purchase their own equipment and vehicles while accounting for factors such as affordability, risk of equipment loss, and overall profits. Despite revolving around currency, Wardogs does not feature any microtransactions, such as an item shop or a battle pass system.
Development for the game took several years, with it first being pitched to Tencent with a budget of £10 million to £12 million, although disagreements between Bulkhead and Tencent led to Bulkhead joining Team17, later being announced in February 2026. Wardogs received positive reception upon early access release, with over two million copies sold and over 400,000 peak concurrent players within less than a week. Before the early access launch, testers of the game said it exceeded expectations.
Wardogs is a player-versus-player tactical shooter, in which players are affected by realistic factors and can be killed quickly. The game is set in an implied alternate history in a fictional mountainous region in Eastern Europe that is contested by three private military companies: Lonestar (blue) from the West, Valkyra (red) from the Soviet People's Republic, and Manticore (green) from the Kingdom of Persia. Servers of up to 100 players are split into three teams representing these PMCs (maximum of 33 players each), who fight for a 2×2 kilometre "Control Zone" placed randomly on a larger 256-square-kilometre map. The team with the most players in the Control Zone scores a point every ten seconds, which can be boosted by holding a much smaller randomly placed "Hot Zone" within the Control Zone that counts players within it as double. Across the map are towers that a team can take control of by securing the tower and finding one digit of a code; completing the code can force the Hot Zone to come closer to the team, securing them a greater advantage. As a way to help hold positions in and around the Control Zone, players can build structures with hammers and supplied building materials, with the ability to establish forward operating bases that can be used to construct fortresses that offer greater structure and emplacement options and can serve as team rallying points, though they must be continuously supplied.
The main gimmick of Wardogs is its "cash is king" style of play, derived from Arma 3's "King of the Hill" custom gamemode. Each player's account in Wardogs starts with $10,000 in in-game cash, which can be used to purchase an assortment of weapons, equipment, ammunition, attachments, vehicles, helicopters, and supplies for themselves and their team. These purchases, except initial unlocks, are not persistent and exist in the match only, but cash is persistent across matches, forcing players to be wise with their purchases, consider the risks of taking expensive equipment and vehicles to the front, and aim for a personal profit (shown next to the cash counter on the HUD) by the end of the match. Cash is a significant factor in gameplay, with certain tasks and actions such as kills, assists, transporting, and supplying allies all providing payment, creating financial incentives for playing support roles such as logistics, military engineering, or airlifting instead of prioritising combat. In turn, players must use their cash to make purchases for a large number of actions, such as buying equipment and supplies, repairing their vehicles, or even taking items from supply crates ("purchased" from the player that brought the supply crate, who can also apply a markup to their supplies for greater profit, at risk of potentially making them too expensive and unappealing).
Players can use cash as part of interactions and cooperation, such as paying vehicle drivers for a "taxi ride", offering cash as a "bribe" when incapacitated to encourage being revived, and giving small tips to players for transporting or reviving them. Players can also bet wagers on certain events and tasks, such as a player betting whether or not they can get a certain amount of kills in one life. Cash could also serve a role in the game's anticheat system. Cash resets to $10,000 for all players with every season, but cash can be exchanged for gold bars, which are safe from seasonal resets, have a simulated exchange rate, and can be used to purchase cosmetics and emotes. These gold bars are the only way to acquire these items, and the cash exchange is the only way to acquire gold bars; Wardogs is not planned to have microtransactions or a battle pass.
Development of Wardogs took several years and first started in Derby, England, with the engine of choice being Unreal Engine 5. Bulkhead initially pitched the game's concept to the studio's prior owner, Tencent, with a budget of around £10 million and £12 million. However, Tencent insisted on a larger and more expensive production, and was confused by and suspicious of Bulkhead's development doctrine that discouraged "throwing money at people and problems"; Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer likewise disdained Tencent's mandated corporate direction, and considered quitting and closing down Bulkhead if another buyer for the studio could not be found. Ultimately, Bulkhead left Tencent in 2025 and made a deal with Team17, making Wardogs a predominantly British production.
Wardogs was announced on 5 February 2026 by Team17 with the tagline of "Tactical All Out Warfa
Source: Wardogs (video game) (CC BY-SA)
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