WARDOGS dev lists 10 reasons to skip buying its own top-selling FPS

A studio talking itself down from the top of the charts

Most developers spend launch week doing the opposite of what BULKHEAD just did. The studio behind WARDOGS, a tactical FPS published by Team17, climbed to the top of Steam’s premium sales chart on the back of pre-orders, then turned around and published a video listing ten reasons players might want to skip the purchase entirely. It is a genuinely unusual move, and it says something interesting about where the studio’s head is at going into Early Access.

WARDOGS drops up to 100 players across three competing teams onto a destructible battlefield. The economy is persistent within a session: players earn in-game cash through combat, transporting teammates, and other actions, then spend it on weapons, equipment, and vehicles for each life. Die, and you lose your loadout. Getting back into the fight requires finding a ride, which adds a layer of consequence that most shooters skip entirely. According to its Steam page, the game enters Early Access on September 10 for $39.99, with pre-orders also unlocking access to a closed beta from August 21 to 23.

What BULKHEAD actually warned players about

The studio’s ten-point list covers a wide range of concerns, some practical, some philosophical. Content is the first item. After the Early Access launch, BULKHEAD says it plans to focus on bug fixes, balancing, player feedback, and adding one additional map rather than flooding the game with new content drops. For players who expect a steady content cadence, that is a real caveat worth knowing upfront.

Price comes up second. Forty dollars is on the higher end for an unfinished game, and BULKHEAD acknowledged that directly. “If the price feels too high for an early access game, please don’t buy it yet,” the developer said, according to the Dexerto report. The studio also encouraged players to refund the game if they do not enjoy the beta, which is either extremely player-friendly or a sign of real confidence that most people who try it will stick around. Possibly both.

Player count made the list too. BULKHEAD is transparent about expecting its audience to shrink in the months after launch, but says a floor of 3,000 to 5,000 concurrent daily players would represent a healthy, sustainable community. That framing matters because it sets realistic expectations rather than promising a perpetually packed server browser.

The remaining warnings touch on potential post-1.0 monetization, modest graphics and performance targets, the possibility that development priorities could shift, proximity voice chat, limited controller support, and the loadout-loss-on-death mechanic described above. That last one is less a warning and more a feature disclosure, but BULKHEAD clearly wanted players to know what they were getting into before handing over money.

Why transparency like this is worth paying attention to

Early Access has a complicated reputation. Players have been burned enough times by games that launched in an unfinished state, promised a roadmap, and then went quiet, that a vocal strand of the community now treats the label as a red flag by default. BULKHEAD is not pretending that problem does not exist.

The studio’s approach here borrows from a small but growing tradition of developers being upfront about what Early Access actually means for their specific game rather than leaning on the format as a marketing tool. Dexerto also noted a related story about a developer warning players not to buy their game because it would go on sale soon, which suggests the conversation around honest storefronts is broader than just WARDOGS.

Whether the transparency translates into a better game is a question the beta, starting August 21, will start to answer. What is already clear is that BULKHEAD would rather build a community that bought in with accurate expectations than a larger one that feels misled by October.