Timeline
News and milestones
What has actually happened, in order, with a link to where each item came from. No roundups of other people's speculation.
Updated
LatestConfirmed
Bulkhead shuts the WARDOGS studio for all of December
All of Bulkhead is off in December, CEO Joe Brammer told Edge. Season 3 gets under three weeks first, and nobody has said what happens to fixes.
November 2026
ConfirmedWARDOGS servers: GG Host and 1of1 Servers approved as hosts four and fiveBulkhead approved GG Host and 1of1 Servers on 26 October. Both sell 60, 80 and 100-player servers from $69.99 a month, but most regions are sold out or coming soon.
October 2026
ReportedWARDOGS Season 3 is set for 12 November, and seasons go to three monthsA Bulkhead developer says Season 3 starts on 12 November. On its new Hot Zone podcast, the team said later seasons will run about three months and Intel is aimed at Q2 2027.ConfirmedWARDOGS cars are still flying after Bulkhead's ban threatBulkhead says flying ground vehicles are an exploited bug, promised a server-side hotfix and permanent bans on 20 October. Three days on, the clips keep coming.ConfirmedBulkhead caps WARDOGS ping at 175 to keep cheaters outWARDOGS servers are dropping to a 175 maximum ping, and region locking is being built on the backend. Bulkhead says regions "more prone to cheating" forced it.ReportedSeason 2 hasn't stopped WARDOGS' slide: players down 22%WARDOGS averaged 174,445 players over 30 days, 22% below September, and the Season 2 bump is already fading. The numbers, and Bulkhead's plan.ConfirmedBulkhead drops the blue team bonus and fixes Driver XPOne day into Season 2, Bulkhead removed Lonestar's 5% cash and 2.5% XP bonus, slowed Driver levelling, banned zone exploiters for 24 hours and announced Limited Mode servers.ConfirmedSeason 2 is live: Update 0.2.0 and servers backBulkhead announced Season 2 was live on 15 October after the maintenance window ran over. Update 0.2.0 is out and servers have restarted across regions.ConfirmedSeason 2 patch notes: what changes for playersBulkhead's Season 02 patch notes add four weapons and four vehicles, faster levelling, pricier heavy vehicles and a Lonestar bonus experiment.ConfirmedSeason 2 preview: four new weapons, a T-72, Molotovs and a Wager VendorBulkhead's Season 02 preview names four weapons, four vehicles, a Molotov, three buildables, rain, an experimental Wager Vendor and a Lonestar faction experiment. Season 2 is still 15 October; full patch notes come early next week.ConfirmedBulkhead on Season 2: four new weapons, Level 4 helmet, rain and fogOn the Push to Talk podcast, Bulkhead said Season 2 adds four weapons (one per class), a Level 4 helmet, custom rain and fog, and a higher minimum parachute height.ConfirmedIR rangefinders pulled until Season 2, CIWS now kills a Havoc in 6 secondsBulkhead disabled infrared rangefinders in the vendor until Season 2, when they will need batteries, and doubled how fast the CIWS kills a Havoc. No download or downtime.ConfirmedSecurity and stability hotfix: servers down Friday 08:00 UTCBulkhead takes WARDOGS offline for about an hour from 08:00 UTC on Friday 2 October for a hotfix aimed at minor security and stability issues.
September 2026
ConfirmedUpdate 0.1.2: WD-L020 fixed, exploit leniency endsUpdate 0.1.2 fixes the WD-L020 crash from Windows update KB5124010, closes cash and XP exploits, ends first-offence leniency and adds a DEPLOY server menu.Confirmed3 million copies sold, and a Golden Joystick nominationBulkhead says WARDOGS passed 3 million sales in two and a half weeks, and the game is up for Best Early Access Game at the Golden Joysticks.ConfirmedWD-L020 crash traced to Windows update KB5124010Team17 support confirmed the WD-L020 launch error comes from a Windows 11 preview update, KB5124010, and posted a rollback workaround.ConfirmedWARDOGS Season 2 dated: 15 October 2026Bulkhead confirmed WARDOGS Season 2 for 15 October on the Steam news hub, days after its own producer guessed almost the same week.Confirmed2 million copies sold, and a reported new peak of 428,666Five days after launch, Bulkhead posted 2 million copies sold. Press coverage cited a new concurrent-player peak this site has not verified.ConfirmedPatch 0.11: server browser split, maintenance on MondayMaintenance at 08:00 UTC on 14 September delivers Patch 0.11: Community and Official browsers, join by server ID, 5% bonus cash and exploit bans.Confirmed1.25 million copies sold, and a peak of 340,171At 01:05 UTC Bulkhead posted the first-day sales figure. Forty minutes earlier the concurrent count had set its record, and the login queue had already gone.ConfirmedConsoles get a year: WARDOGS is coming to PlayStation and Xbox in 2028In the post announcing that Early Access was going live, Bulkhead added the line it had refused to give for six months: "coming to consoles in 2028."ConfirmedLaunch Stability Hotfix #1 names three launch faultsEarly Access peaked at 337,157 players. At 20:20 UTC Bulkhead shipped a client hotfix for join failures, mid-match kicks and long login queues.ConfirmedSeason 1 changelog: official prices and unlock levelsBulkhead published the Season 1 changelog the night before launch: the first official prices, XP curve and unlock levels for the Early Access build.ConfirmedWARDOGS servers: xREALM named as a third approved hostBulkhead added xREALM to the approved hosts a day after the first two: 60, 80 and 100-player servers from $69.99 a month in nine cities, live 10 September.ConfirmedWARDOGS servers: two approved hosts, pre-orders openBulkhead named QONZER and BisectHosting as the only hosts with the server code and opened pre-orders for 60, 80 and 100-player servers, ready for 10 September.ConfirmedClosed Beta 02 opened to everyone for its last nightBulkhead posted "THE CLOSED BETA IS NOW AN OPEN BETA!" at 21:08 UTC on 5 September and ran the last eleven hours of Beta 02 open to all, to the 08:00 UTC close.ConfirmedFPS Games Show: a $100,000 clip contest, then an apologyThe FPS Games Show's “massive announcement” was a $100,000 clip contest. No console or open-beta news. Bulkhead apologised on 4 September and showed a new map.ConfirmedClosed Beta 02 opens 3 September, a week before launchBulkhead has announced Closed Beta 02, opening after the FPS Games Show on 3 September. Pre-orders are guaranteed in, everyone else is invited in waves.
August 2026
ConfirmedWARDOGS Closed Beta opens 17:00 UTC Friday, NDA liftedBulkhead has published the window it withheld for nine days: 17:00 UTC Friday 21 August to 02:00 UTC Monday 24. The NDA is lifted and pre-loading is live.ConfirmedWARDOGS Early Access: 10 September, pre-orders at $39.99Bulkhead named a date, a price and a second playtest in one post: Early Access 10 September 2026 at $39.99, pre-orders open now, Closed Beta 21–23 August.ConfirmedWARDOGS passes 800,000 Steam wishlistsBulkhead put the figure at 800,000 and rising in the pre-order devlog — 300,000 added since May, and the number it is sizing launch servers around.ConfirmedWARDOGS Closed Alpha embargo lifted: 25-weapon roster liveBulkhead has told playtesters they can share gameplay, screenshots and streams from the 7–9 August Closed Alpha. Our full vendor roster is now published.ReportedWARDOGS Closed Alpha ends; Major Announcement 11 AugustThe first WARDOGS Closed Alpha wrapped 9 August. @WARDOGS says a "Major Announcement" lands Tuesday 11 August at 16:00 UTC — content not yet known.July 2026
ConfirmedWARDOGS first livestream: raw gameplay and a Twitch banBulkhead streams unedited pre-alpha footage with real playtesters. The stream ends in a Twitch ban over an in-game prop.ConfirmedFirst-round invite deadline passesThe FirstLook hardware survey cut-off for the opening wave of Closed Alpha invites has gone. Signing up now means waiting on a later wave.ConfirmedClosed Alpha set for 7–9 AugustBulkhead confirms the first public hands-on build: three days, Steam only, invite gated through the FirstLook programme.June 2026
ConfirmedWARDOGS Pre-Alpha playtests announcedFour months after saying playtests were not close, Bulkhead opens pre-alpha testing — the first outside hands on the game.May 2026
ConfirmedWARDOGS passes 500,000 Steam wishlistsHalf a million wishlists, five times the February figure — and enough to put WARDOGS in genuine commercial territory for a mid-size studio.April 2026
ConfirmedWARDOGS metagame: Black Market, Vault and Player SkillsBulkhead outlines what happens outside a match — a progression frontend to be built across Early Access, not shipped with it.March 2026
ConfirmedWARDOGS console plans confirmed, but without a date"We are coming to console. That is our plan, we just do not know when." Xbox and PlayStation versions are intended — but nothing has been dated.February 2026
ConfirmedWARDOGS fact drop: Hot Zone, factions, no battle passThe single densest official post about WARDOGS: the Hot Zone, the three factions, the engine, squad sizes, the setting, and a flat no to battle passes.Confirmed100,000 Steam wishlists in three daysThe Steam page clears 100,000 wishlists within 72 hours of the reveal — a strong signal for a studio targeting a few thousand concurrent players.ConfirmedWARDOGS revealed by Bulkhead and Team17Bulkhead announces a 100-player, three-team shooter with Team17 publishing, targeting Steam Early Access in 2026.From the official channels
What Bulkhead and Team17 have actually said, quoted directly.
Not available yet
No posts quoted here yet
Posts from the official accounts get quoted here in full when they say something that matters — dates, mechanics, playtest changes. Quoted rather than embedded, so they load instantly and the text is readable by search engines instead of being locked inside an iframe.
What will be here
- Announcements quoted verbatim, with a link to the original
- Our note on what each one actually changes
- Sourced and status-labelled like everything else here
We would rather hold an empty page than fill it with guesses.See what changed in the latest patch →
Following along
Patch notes and update history
Every build, what changed, and which numbers on this site moved because of it.
Trailers and gameplay
Each video with a note on what it actually shows — and what it does not.
The questions people ask
Release date, price, consoles and crossplay, each labelled by how well it is sourced.
How WARDOGS works
Three teams, a randomised Control Zone, and an economy where losing a tank costs you.