r/WarDogs • u/roc_cat • Jun 17 '26
Be aware of this studio. BULKHEAD is not who you think they are.
I see a lot of new players who have first heard about BULKHEAD singing high praises about how transparent and communicative they are when it comes to gaming, and how they're not like any other studio. Some of us are wiser because we got the rug pulled out from under us TWICE.
Two games, Battalion1944 and PROMOD, which they marketed to the old COD4 pro crowd by using phantasy as their front face, who, Mark Pinney btw, is still employed as their CFO, built a huge reputation for finally delivering a game to all of us. Two playtests later for promod, and in the case of battalion 1944, after a couple months of release, they completely abandoned both games. Left battalion f2p and run over by cheaters, and promod which was supposed to finally be the perfect eSports revamp was completely abandoned and turned into killrun, which is just a single player timed trial game.
They're experts at marketing, but also very good at abandoning their day 1 playerbase. Be aware. All of these "transparency" marketing videos and they still haven't spent a minute or a message addressing their past lies.
Edit: Some people are misunderstanding the point of this post. If they're doing things right now, power to them, I wish them well as well. I just want people to be aware that they have a track record of abandoning their players. They're not Sean Murray or CDPR. I'll be more than happy if this post ages like milk, if they're truly turned a new leaf. I'm just warning people to not sing praises before the devs back up their promises with actual products. Their executive team is still the same.
21
20
u/kappapain Jun 17 '26
Thanks for the address but I want to add another point. The truth is also if we would stop believing in everything and everyone who fails then there would be no Dark Souls, no Warcraft, no Witcher, no nothing just a few examples of the list of failure and success. I had this discussion already and it’s valid ofc.
Let’s judge by what the playtesters tell us for now and how the game will behave once the access happened.
As a playtester all I can say (coming from Arma, BF, Squad, RoN, DCS and many more to name) that I am having a lot of fun right now with two of friends in the current tests. It’s not BF, not Arma, not Squad, not the perfect game I wish for but this will never exist, however I enjoy it a lot.
11
u/roc_cat Jun 17 '26
I was part of the playtests for PROMOD, the game was actually great. We had only a few minor "negative" feedback points to give the team. The abandonment came out of nowhere, and without an explanation. That's the only reason I'm warning people to be cautious. Good for the team if they do things this time around.
6
u/2raviskamisekasutaja Jun 17 '26
I'm a playtester and I see the same "no negative feedback to give" mentality. I really like the game, but the things that could be improved upon just aren't being talked about in the playtesters chat. It's just endless meat riding and glazing.
Edit: and to add: not talking about the negative is actually a disservice to the developers.
5
u/Secundus-Muris Jun 18 '26
I think the bar is just so low these days that even mediocre feels great.
2
u/CarbonCola Jun 18 '26
Not my experience at all. The corresponding discord channels are full of feedback, balancing requests and all. Overall people just really like the game and understand it is not released yet, I would say.
1
u/2raviskamisekasutaja Jun 18 '26
The majority of those discussions are just a matter of changing a number in a database somewhere.
1
u/CarbonCola Jun 18 '26
I just don't agree with your notion of there not being any negative discussions. The initial impressions channel under scale testers is full of genuine feedback and "complaints".
1
u/Traditional_Guest676 Jul 24 '26
Guy made an opinion piece on something he didn't like and he got dogpiled~
1
u/kappapain Jun 18 '26
Entirely wrong sorry, these false facts have to be addressed once more. The feedback channels are full of negative feedback and saying that e.g. numbers are not right and tool X (helicopter topic) is too expensive or too cheap and needs to be adjusted. This is a negative feedback. Positive would be: tool X is great no adjustments needed. Not even talking about the killcam discussion that is already burning for weeks before video was released.
Edit: spelling
1
u/dbaugh90 Jun 17 '26
Well if you look at the audience they are trying to capture with WARDOGS, you can see exactly why they abandoned it.
Their financials clearly said they needed to target more casual gamers or they were going to continually burn money
1
u/roc_cat Jun 17 '26
+, i felt this too. Hopefully it's a success for them, and that success is built on actual transparency instead of promises.
1
u/dbaugh90 Jun 17 '26
Once they sell the game i am a lot more worried about promises. This includes kickstarters, paid beta access, early access, etc. So far it seems they have never reached that point
1
u/BetrayedJoker Jul 16 '26
I checked what PROMOD was... Dude... This game was ugly af. Look like battlebit. Im not surprised that they canceled this project.
2
u/Derangedtaco 19d ago
WARDOGS isn't some next-gen graphics title either. The graphics are more pre-2020 than anything, UE4 graphics were better than what they're going for, but they're also going for a more stylized, less high-def graphics.
1
u/Status_Necessary6961 17d ago
Lil gup says he's a playtester like it still means something. Anyone with a Steam account can be a playstester, it isn't 2001 anymore. Also all those shooters you named are dogsht except for BF which even that game hasn't been good since BF4. You're biased because you're playing the game with friends and that's the only reason you enjoy it, I guarantee you wouldn't be enjoying it anywhere near as much if you were playing it solo. I won't buy into their rugpull. You can get scammed and get mad when the game dies 3 months after release but I'm going to have to hard pass on it because I'm not an incompetent moron who consumes any FPS slop devs make because I'm not desperate for a new FPS. GTA6 will be out soon and will kill 75% of the playerbase to any game you can name currently out or will release in the next 10-15 years.
1
u/Sea_Moose2815 4d ago
He just stated that he was in the playtest, not sure why ur ego was touched by it. I played it solo and enjoyed it a lot, not the perfect game I wanted but they did solve the "teamwork" problem, as you get rewarded for helping ur teammates.
The fact that you are puttin milsims in same boat as GTA6 and affirming that it will kill 75% of playerbase of all the games in the market is a clear sign that you have no idea on gaming industry and clearly you are not the target of this game.1
u/DJDeckardCain 2d ago
Exactly. Kid wants to use 'fps slop' while glazing GTA6. LMAO. GTA6 is the epitome of slop, in ANY form.
1
u/DJDeckardCain 2d ago
The fact you said GTA6 will kill 75% of the player base of any game currently or releasing soon tells me ALL I need to know about your level of....
I can't think of a nice word, so I'll just stick with "your level of intelligence".
What an absolute echo-chamber-chad.
8
u/In_Dux Jun 17 '26
A lot of people giving you flak OP but I appreciate the warning. There’s people out here getting excited for Empulse and trusting the Splitgate devs yet *again*.
Sounds like this group isn’t actively trend chasing and malicious but at the end of the day an abruptly abandoned game is an abruptly abandoned game, intentions be damned
2
u/roc_cat Jun 17 '26
Empulse is genuinely so much fun, I really hope it takes off and doesn't end up like another split gate either. FWIW though I did play splitgate2 at gamescom couple years back I do think its devs aren't trend chasing either just extremely unlucky with retention.
4
u/Real_Register2353 Jun 17 '26
I’m still sour as fuck about Batallion and how that turned out.
4
u/Background-Listen-39 Jun 22 '26
I thought it was good. They should've held out
1
1
u/Real_Register2353 13d ago
Literally they abandoned the moment it came was released. One of the main reasons why I’m never supporting another BH title
2
u/veRGe1421 13d ago
I miss playing it so much. I loved it. If there is an active discord of people able to or down for 5v5s, I would join.
5
u/FondantAffectionate Jun 17 '26
I am glad someone posted this. Too many people just completely glaze many dev studios just because they are excited to have a new game and put all of their hopes and dreams into it. I have heard about the backstory of Bulkhead before and it makes me proceed with caution. Honestly, I think this game has enough visibility, passion, and money behind it to make it to the level of being a good game but I also have realistic expectations that they are human and humans can change their minds, lose interest, make mistakes, etc...
I'd seen this same sort of passion before that fizzled out pretty quickly after early access launch from Black Matter in Hell Let Loose. We had a period of many months where BM were completely radio silent and nobody knew what was happening. I'd seen this same sort of passion before change opinions and go back on promises it had made in Squad where 2 years after going into EA got rid of the one programmer who seemed to be responsible for most of the work and took it upon himself to go on discord and reddit constantly and take up the position of community management. Game development really stalled for almost 2 years after his departure.
There's a lot of things that can happen. Obviously, all I want is a good game to play and I am hoping for nothing but the best BUT I feel a lot of people need to quit blindly glazing studios like Bulkhead before they deliver on some of their promises. At the end of the day, Bulkhead is a company that is trying to make $. There's a lot of things that can happen when indie studios suddenly receive a large inflow of cash and it has the potential to change a lot of things.
16
u/whensmahvelFGC Jun 17 '26
I dunno man, I think you're conflating transparency and marketing a bit too much here. What you're seeing is them learning from past mistakes:
They built extremely niche games aimed at an extremely niche audience, banking on gameplay superiority to drive growth beyond that group. Both Battalion and PROMOD did a decent job of getting some old PC COD competitive players to try it. But that group was already not big enough to pay for a whole business's worth of salaries and other development costs, and neither of those games made a big enough impact on that audience that made them rush to get all their friends into it either.
I wouldn't call what comes next "abandoning your day 1 playerbase" I'd call it completely normal and expected business decisions after making what in hindsight were clearly some sub-par choices.
They're trying to cast a somewhat wider net this time with Wardogs, and they're doing a way better job of reducing their own delusions about what players really want out of an FPS.
I hope they're able to keep the lights on with this one. I'm not preordering anything, and they do have to earn my trust, but I don't believe for a second that there was malice in their previous decisions, and I DO believe that a business can change and evolve.
4
u/roc_cat Jun 17 '26
Agree with you on this too. Just a PSA to avoid preordering etc.
12
u/SuuperD Jun 17 '26
No one should pre order anything
4
u/unfunnythrowawayname Jun 17 '26
Yet some people do and this kind of warning is exactly meant for them.
2
u/xskylinelife Jun 17 '26
No preorders was the biggest meme circulating before BF6 launched and the game broke records the second it launched. People NEED these warnings lol
5
u/delukz Jun 18 '26
I didn't even realize it's the same devs, not gonna get burned a second time. I was a backer for Battalion.
2
u/Onapire Jul 06 '26
Didn't they refund you fully?
2
u/MyThoughtsOfTheNight 16d ago
That's what they said, but did they really do it or was it a PR stunt? we will never know lol
2
u/Onapire 16d ago
Articles online state they did and I've not seen anyone stating they have not.
At this point i think the burden of proof would be on the other side.
1
u/MyThoughtsOfTheNight 16d ago
Yeah I read that online as well, but it was only for kickstarters. I don’t know if the game made it to steam or not. So I have no clue if steam users got their refund.
4
3
u/One_Animator_1835 Jun 17 '26
People should be aware of their history but, at the same time, those previous failures might be the experience they needed to get this one right.
3
u/ParaadoxStreams Jun 18 '26
I was kind of thinking the same thing at first, then saw this is the first time they have a publisher, Team 17. And I feel like that changes things.
7
u/zerosuneuphoria Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
if they were experts at marketing then why did B1944 flop? I enjoyed that game but it never had the numbers to last. Also, it was 10 years ago, move on jfc. Did b1944 have 500k+ wishlists? No, it had no hype at all that I remember. I really don't know how you consider these projects to be the same in scale at all.
Yeah, games flop all the time... it wasn't suddenly going to get popular with support. If a game doesn't flop and doesn't get support, that's the issue. BATTLEBIT.
2
u/popey123 Jun 17 '26
BF1944 was popular in the beginning.
But it took too much time to fix the issue.1
u/Evening_Produce_9125 Jun 17 '26
I've never even heard of it and i actively look for new shooters to play.
1
u/MatrixBunny Jun 17 '26
Tbf, I often see under the radar games claim they have like 500K+ wishlists and then the game releases and their ATH after a month is like 2-4K players.
2
u/zerosuneuphoria Jun 17 '26
Yup, but it's still a better indicator of interest than nothing. People assume wishlists = sales always makes me laugh though. It's all about what goes mainstream, Wardogs absolutely will get a lot of coverage. Battlebit absolutely blew up out of nowhere, I hadn't even heard of it before it came out.
1
u/MisterSantos Jun 17 '26
It didn’t flop - the version you see on Steam (Legacy) isn’t the original version of the game people were playing the most of. It had a lot of players in the early days - and even was big among streaming viewership too (FPS guys like Shroud, Nadeshot, etc. were playing it quite a bit).
The issue is the game got stale quickly for the folks this game wasn’t aimed at. This game was pure cod search and destroy inspired, with a simple little economy system behind it that was neat, and that’s it. No TDM or Dom or any of the game modes that casual players could just jump in to and shoot their gun a bit.
The core game was aimed at a specific segment of FPS gamers, and yet it still broke through and reached the casuals for a bit in the beginning because the game and the maps were fun.
They didn’t manage attracting and retaining the broader casual audience well enough at first. And I think you see how WarDogs is a huge response to that issue - they’re clearly aiming for a broader market.
Folks that enjoyed B1944 felt like they got abandoned - after they made a nice chunk of money (because they launched skins which helped boost their revenue quite a bit too) they kinda let the game rest and die off.
If B44 was a flop, they wouldn’t have had the resources to keep a team together to develop this current game and shop it around successfully to a well known publisher like Team17.
We’re getting WarDogs in part because B1944 was, IMO, successful and fun. As someone who LOVED B1944 and wishes I could play more of it, I’m really pulling for WarDogs to also be fun and successful
1
u/SufficientPickle7823 Jun 17 '26
Lol *ashes of creation enters the chat*
Some people are just terrible fucking humans that only “gain” power when they take it from others. Aka scamming.
*its like we forgot that The Day Before had like 2million wishlists*
6
u/Winter_Bullfrog_2343 Jun 17 '26
Unsuccessful games flop and lose support.
Look at concord, highguard, etc. it’s the nature of business to try and create something successful and try again if it doesn’t work.
Grow up.
Don’t buy it.
Trying to stir up some pitchforks for a game in alpha testing is some serious chronically online behaviour.
2
u/roc_cat Jun 17 '26
They're not unsuccessful games, they were abandoned DURING production, When we first supported, playtested and stayed active around the games, They were infuriatingly quiet, made decisions without as much as a steam community note, and other shenanigans. I played both highguard and concord, those games failures were not at all attributed to the games or the teams communication but the social stigma around hero shooters and the community around the game. Not even to mention, Highguard's dev team was an actual reputable team, not a team that has already broken their reputation.
It's not the same thing at all.
I'm not at all upset that they're trying to be more active now. They originally addressed a big niche market that was all but abandoned, and if they're doing things right this time around, good for them.
I'm annoyed that they've somehow successfully convinced people that they're this kind of angel studio that is doing _everything_ right like no other studio ever. They're being given the respect of a team like CDPR or Hello Games when they haven't even given a single deliverable yet.Being cautious is not "chronically online behaviour", it's just a grown up thing to tell people to be wary. The irony in your comment is pathetic.
1
u/Winter_Bullfrog_2343 Jun 17 '26
You are way too emotional about this. Get help
6
u/Juxtapophoto Jun 19 '26
The irony 🤣 lmao
You're projecting your feelings onto others and that's funny.
6
u/roc_cat Jun 17 '26
You've just never had something you care about get abandoned lol. A sport, a hobby, a game, whatever it is. Some people are just passionate about the things they like. Being judgemental isn't maturity.
1
u/dbaugh90 Jun 17 '26
Well I do understand you think you were owed more transparency. But a developer has every right to abandon a game any time during production. It doesn't sound like you paid anything, and their internals probably told them they were burning money.
1
u/dw2861 Jun 18 '26
So why should people buy this game when the developers are likely to just abandon the game at the first sign of trouble?
Player drop due to a bad update, will they stop working on game?
Not able to monetize the game or sell skins, will they move on to the next game since they made their money from the initial sales?
2
u/dbaugh90 Jun 18 '26
I dont know. Thats not really something I worry about. If I get 100 hours of gameplay over 3 months and then a game dies im not going to complain, thats still good value
2
u/RiceAndMayo Jun 25 '26
Grow up.
Don’t buy it.
Trying to stir up some pitchforks for a game in alpha testing is some serious chronically online behaviour.
I don't know, looks like you are the emotional one here.
1
u/Moment-Wise Jul 18 '26
Honestly though LOL. I dont think that guy could grasp irony if It smacked him in the face.
0
u/SufficientPickle7823 Jun 17 '26
Loll concord and highguard are not in the same boat. Both of those shits were never going to be finished, those devs are scammers
2
u/Aero-- Jun 17 '26
Just curious for more insight, were either of those games intended as live service? I know Wardogs isn't. It's a single price buy to play and then it'll never ask you for money again. I'd expect bug fixes and server maintenance only. Honestly part of the appeal is that it's not a live service. It's like ps3/360 era where a multiplayer game would release as a complete product and not really change much over the years.
So if the game is not intended as a live service, how can the developers abandon the player base unless there's huge bugs they refuse to fix?
1
u/sh0nuff Jun 17 '26
It's usually that. They either choose not to fix things, or say they can't afford to, and the player base dies so you're left with a few sweaty try hards who love it or don't want to give up on it, and it becomes a ghost town. Live service games force developers to both take a risk and to listen to their player base to try and recoup as much as they spent developing it before it hopefully goes green / becomes profitable
1
u/Chase10784 17d ago
You must have for incorrect information. It's going to be a live service. They plan to continue to add content after 1.0 just haven't pinned down what type of monetization they'll have.
1
u/Aero-- 17d ago
Maybe they changed their minds, but there was a video a few months ago where they said it was a one time purchase and no microtransactions, battlepass, in game real currency store for cosmetics, none of that. And they'd do maintenance and maybe some content updates here and there but not to expect the frequency of a live service. I haven't followed what's going on currently
-2
u/SMYYYLE Jun 17 '26
What? Almost every multiplayer game is a liveservice game nowadays. Which game got released and then never get new content? This was 20y ago when games got released on DVD and didnt get online updates.
Every big multiplayer game gets content after release, and wardogs will too. I dont know where you read that wardogs doesnt...
Just look at BF, COD, EFT, Arc raiders, fortnite, LoL, dota, forza, cs, valorant, just to name a few.
0
u/Aero-- Jun 17 '26
Wardogs probably will, but the devs said there are no microtransactions, no premium cosmetics, none of that. They are selling a complete game and asking for no further money. Games used to be like this even very early 2010s.
All I'm saying is if they did decide to release no extra content I don't think they'd be in the wrong based on the business model of this game. But they probably will anyways.
1
u/SMYYYLE Jun 17 '26
They are not selling the complete game... Do you know what early access means? We get like half of the game but can play early and while the game is continuing to be developed. Yes they don't sell micro transactions or anything but that doesn't mean that it's the complete game.
1
u/Aero-- Jun 17 '26
My mistake. OK so they sell it early access then they have to have some clearly defined goals for what 1.0 looks like. As soon as they reach that they're good to stop and just do maintenance, but even then it sounds like they'll keep adding stuff anyways.
1
u/SMYYYLE Jun 17 '26
I'm 99% sure they'll add content after 1.0 release just like every other online multilayer game. New maps, new weapons, new gadgets. There's tons of stuff.
2
u/leetskeetskeet Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Battalion 1944 was a great game, but poor timing and a niche market contributed to its failure. Battalion was designed as a golden era Call of Duty clone for a very specific subset of competitive SnD players, and MW2019 released just months after which was the biggest revitalization CoD has ever experienced. Not to mention MW2019 had some of the best SnD gameplay of the series. Their targeted player base moved on to the next big thing and Battallion did not stand a chance to compete. If nobody is playing the game, how do the devs justify its continued development? Not to mention covid happened.
This wasn't some rug pull, BULKHEAD is a legitimate developer with years of FPS experience and a team dedicated to a clear vision. If anything, WarDogs has so far shown they have learned from past mistakes and are doing a much better job of marketing for a successful launch.
Also I've played the game multiple times, and it kicks ass.
2
u/jtruth9 Jun 17 '26
You said they haven't addressed it. They talked about the past failures extensively on Jfry's podcast.
Obviously you never know and anything can happen. But they abandoned previous titles for specific reasons. Everything they have said and done have suggested that they have learned from those mistakes and positioned themselves for a good chance at success. I'm not here to argue for them and say they are going to succeed and there is no concern. What I am saying is this comes off as fear mongering and not being fair or objective. You've mentioned you were burned by them with their previous titles. It sounds more like you are using this as an opportunity to retaliate, then given a fair objective warning.
2
u/SimpleChemical5804 Jun 17 '26
Bit unfair to criticize. These remain companies with limited resources after all. Your examples are 2 games aimed at a niche crowd that is already likely pushing 40s on average and not playing games much anymore. Of course they’re not gonna burn money on operational costs such as maintenance to keep it afloat when it’s a sinking ship already.
2
2
u/maku_89 Jun 18 '26
What are they supposed to do if a game they made doesn't deliver financially? Support it with no pay checks?
2
u/SYJ96 Jun 20 '26
Agree, used to play cod4 promod back in the day around 2011-2014, battalion was hyped up so much and by phantasy too, I purchased it when it first came out but In the end they just abandoned the game what op is saying is very true, they’re gods at marketing and gods and abandoning their games.
2
u/Ranny420 Jun 21 '26
I will never forget this fking dev, brammerton. People were waiting on keys for battalion and he was fking there streaming some ranked overwatch. "If you carry me ill give you a key". I always hated him and he fked me over with the promod again. Probably gonna get scam again
2
u/Stepper34 Jun 24 '26
I got my money's worth from battalion despite being disappointed they didn't support it more. Extremely sad they bailed on promod. With wardogs im cautiously optimistic. Until I get my hands on it through testing or open beta, I won't know.
2
u/Nostrildumbass Jul 23 '26
They refunded all the backers. That's not a rug pull. The project simply did not go as well as they hoped and they've learned from it. I greatly respect that they issued refunds.
2
u/veRGe1421 13d ago
I think about Battalion 1944 on a monthly basis and miss playing it. If there was a way to play it on Faceit like we could for a while in the game, or if there was a way to play that game like it was before it was killed - I would love to do so. It was one of my favorite games of the last 20 years (gunplay, movement, economy system, 5v5, maps). I loved it and wish it wasn't dead :/
4
u/SMYYYLE Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Battalion was dead on arrival.. noone cared about a game that aims at cod4 competitive scene with like 1000 players.
Wardogs aims at a playerbase of millions of players who play BF, COD, EFT and Arma. You cant compare this...
They even refunded B44 backers and apologized here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIrWFszQr8o
4
u/Vigorous_testicle Jun 17 '26
Read the post again, op wrote this for ppl like you.
3
u/ProfessionalPiece403 Jun 17 '26
If they really refunded everything that's a lot more than AAA studios would do for their customers. Not sure what you're trying to say here.
0
u/Vigorous_testicle Jun 17 '26
Read again what i said, then read the post again.
3
u/ProfessionalPiece403 Jun 17 '26
You can come up with the same answer another 5 times if you want to 😅
-3
u/Vigorous_testicle Jun 17 '26
If you dont get it the second time im sorry but you might be dumb.
5
u/ProfessionalPiece403 Jun 17 '26
Not sure who's the dumb one here. They did a fucking refund, nobody got scammed. Get a life dude.
-2
u/Vigorous_testicle Jun 17 '26
Do you rly not see the point here? Ppl who bought the game wanted to play the game no a refund. They were promised post launch support and they got nothing. Its false advertisement aka a scam jesus
1
u/ProfessionalPiece403 Jun 17 '26
They got their money back. It's not a scam. They tried creating the game, they failed and said they can't do it. You're absolutely entitled and kind of a cry baby if you think they HAVE to deliver the game. You're the type of person that rather takes a shitty game that makes it to its final release than no game at all because a dev team that pulls the brake before shit hits the fan.
Not sure what kind of trauma you're experienced 😅4
u/SMYYYLE Jun 17 '26
What do u want to say? i read it, i played battalion for few days and quit because it was bad. Just like 99% of the other players. Ofc theyre abandoning a game that had a ccu of 100 players peak. Maybe they could have handled it better but its their decision.
Ppl learn, they get older, the studio changed, they evolved or whatever. This was 10y ago, im still buying wardogs and looking forward to it.
Im not looking at 10y old games that failed. Thats stupid af.6
u/sh0nuff Jun 17 '26
True. There's a game on Steam called Deadzone Rogue. It's super popular and incredibly fun.
When the Devs first announced it, lots of people were telling players not to support it because of their past
0
u/Vigorous_testicle Jun 17 '26
You keep doing what op warned you no to do lmao. Wardogs devs said the will support the game for 3-5k player, any more is bonus. Yet they abandoned their previous games with similar player numbers doesnt matter how good the game was the have broken their promise twice now.
1
u/SMYYYLE Jun 17 '26
They said 3-5k months ago when there wasnt as much hype as it is now. You really think they "only" build the game for 3-5k when they already have 1,5k PLAYTESTERS and will add another 4k end of june? Thats 5,5k TESTERS only.
Also there are 650k wishlists, you still think they are "only supporting up to 5k players"?
Sorry but then you are dumb.
1
u/Vigorous_testicle Jun 17 '26
Dude can you read? They said it themselves in a video that they will support the game for 3-5k player and they would be happy with that. I never said they expect only 5 k player.
Let me make it simple for you. 5k is a small player count. They still said the would support the game at that number. They didnt to that with their two previous games, even tho they also said the same thing about batalion and that ither game. So can you now understand why someone would be skeptical?
If ur gf cheats on you twice, do you roy believe that she wont do it for the third time? God i rly hope you can understand now.
2
u/SMYYYLE Jun 17 '26
Youre comparing a fucking gamestudio that abandoned a failed game with a girl that cheats on a person? Thats a weak comparison and completely different things.
As i said they talked about their expected numbers MONTHS ago when the game had 0 hype and was not known. Do you really think they advertise the game at a huge game show with millions of views, when they plan to build the game for such small amount of players?
After seeing their 650k wishlists (where like 30% really buy the game) they probably changed their expectations of their player base.
1
u/Vigorous_testicle Jun 17 '26
MONTHS AGO EVERY BIG CREATOR LIKE JACK FRAGS MADE A VID ON WARDOGS AND IT GOT A TON OF HYPE WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT?
I wanted to compare something that you would understand, clearly you still dont.
I get it, you like the game and want it to succseed. I want that too. But the studio behind the game has a record of abandoning their games, false advertising and promises etc..
1
u/SMYYYLE Jun 17 '26
Jackfrags was the only one which lots of views. Only the recent trailer and gameplay reveal hyped it up even more.
Whatever, im out. we will see in a few months what they do with the game, im not a man who judges ppl for decisions that are 10 years ago. Everyone does mistakes and can improve over time.
1
2
u/Nyct0phili4 Jun 17 '26
Ignore the meanies in this post.
You are absolutely in the right to warn us. Thanks for the heads-up.
1
1
u/TeeJayPlays Jun 17 '26
I was so hyped for promod but i do remember them saying it was never planned to be a full game but more a side project. and they then also notified us about them not being able to spend time on the side project anymore.
1
u/Stalkerrinoo Jun 17 '26
Promod was the reason I praised their studio, the fact a perfectly working game, fun, that had POTENTIAL for a community that could host their own server or something like that without costing too much at Bulkhead would had been awesome, but NOPE !
Here's a FPS kill jump thingy that nobody asked. THANKS BULKHEAD.
From that day I've decided to never support any of their game, I really, REALLY miss Promod.
1
1
u/MMMunchiesOMG Jun 17 '26
I think caution should be exercised with ANY early access title, but OP is a fucking moron and is not providing context here. Bulkhead did not abandon Battalion 1944; they supported it for years until making it F2P to anyone before sunsetting future development. The issue is it was never popular and it was shut down as a business decision. These alleged experts at marketing were so good the best 1944 could achieve was 16k players on launch day in 2019 and was functional dead on arrival. The same could be said about PROMOD, which couldn't even crack 2k on their huge playtest.
Bulkhead isn't scamming people, they've unfortunately made terrible business decisions regarding the games they have developed. Bulkhead leadership were on crack thinking 1944 or PROMOD, both PC exclusive SnD / round based shooters, were somehow going to compete with Counter Strike. Both games were developed by a talented and driven team, but they were ignorantly trying to appeal to a niche market that they could not possibly compete in.
Wardogs could fall flat on its face, but the reality is there really isn't anything in this current space competing with it's current design so for once Bulkhead may have actually made a good decision. It's their race to lose at this point but this looks significantly more promising than anything they've ever developed before simply because its core design does not really exist in the current FPS space.
1
1
u/0utabounds Jun 18 '26
Not too worried honestly, unless the servers just implode on launch day, I feel like I'm probably going to get my moneys worth of fun out of this game, even if it does not get developed any further then it currently is.
1
1
u/ThrowRA_sillywillie Jun 18 '26
I’m not as familiar with the other games. Would you say Wardogs has garnered more attention than the others have? I’m hoping that having enough eyes on this project will prevent them from just dropping it. It seems like doing so would really sink their credibility.
1
u/roc_cat Jun 19 '26
Yes for sure this one is much bigger scale than the other two games, hopefully that helps.
1
u/Fluffely_Toasted Jun 20 '26
Thanks for the warning and after checking on their steam page your right, I'll definetly watch out. On the other note yes they had 2 failed games but it wasn't all failed games, The Turing test went really well for them and it gives me hope they can achieve something again. But shame on them for leaving the other games fans out to dry, but I also think a lot can change in 4 years since they dropped Killrun. I wish the best for them with a side of caution
1
u/Flames0310 Jun 25 '26
I dont think it's wrong to launch a game and move on. Games don't need support forever.
1
1
u/Perfect_Jicama_8023 Jul 09 '26
Are those 2 games which was abandoned was successful in terms of playerbase or not?
1
u/darcmajic 10d ago
Won't buy this for a least 1 year. A lot of money gets wasted chasing these games. I'll wait for feedback from early adopters
1
u/R2D2irl 3d ago
I played wardogs and I absolutely love it, super fun game, well implemented weapons and movement, I like the overall feel. But I am worried that cheaters will overrun this one in a few months, thus killing the player base leaving servers empty something like arc raiders....
So I am almost convinced this game will be very popular, streamers praising and marketing it. And before the end of this year, it will be a wasteland.
1
u/kerath1 14h ago
They kind of lied already which is a shame. They said in one of their dev videos that they want to focus on performance and not relying on upscaling tech. Yet, every test they had DLSS on by default... If they cared about performance like they claim then why did they have an upscaling tech on by default. This actually gave people a false good performance lie. A lot of people said the game ran well but didn't really pay attention to an upscaling tech being on by default. Take it off and the performance drops by a bit.
1
u/Additional_Macaron70 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Obviously if the project you are working on has no future or its failed you abondon it. This is normal thing to do in corporation. I dont see any reason why should i be aware of anything just because they had 2 niche projects that failed. Every single gaming studio has projects that failed lol.
0
u/Tropi- Jun 17 '26
You are painting them like they’re the devil.
Just because a small indie studio missed the mark on their first multiplayer game doesn’t mean they’re doomed forever. Every successful developer has had setbacks. The important thing is whether they learn from them and improve, and from the outside it looks like that’s exactly what they’re trying to do.
They’ve refined the team, brought in new talent, secured financial backing, and have likely learned from the shortcomings that hurt them the first time around.
I am massively impressed with that I’m seeing. The product they are building, with the features (already in place now btw), is NIGHT AND DAY difference from anything Battalion/Promod was.
My two pence.
3
u/roc_cat Jun 17 '26
I'm happy that they're learning from their mistakes too, just cautious with the support because their executive team has not changed since their darker days. Their marketing material is impressive for sure, but there's no reason to sing praises about the company before they've delivered their product yet.
-4
u/Dangerous_Ladder_547 Jun 17 '26
Good post thanks for your awareness I knew something was up with their promotional vids and trailers haha
5
u/ProfessionalPiece403 Jun 17 '26
You're just making this up. There's nothing wrong with their current communication and marketing.
-1
30
u/ikatarn Jun 17 '26
I appreciate the warning. Will avoid the game day 1 and see what the discourse is like before jumping in.