Wardogs, a new military first-person shooter, has experienced a significant launch in its early access period on Steam, attracting a peak of over 300,000 concurrent users on its first day. The game, priced at $40, quickly ascended to the number one best-selling title on the platform. This strong performance occurred even as the developer, Bulkhead, advised potential players against purchasing the game prior to launch.
The influx of players led to substantial server queues, a situation that became a notable topic on social media. Players shared instances of extremely long wait times, with some reporting hundreds of thousands of users ahead of them in line. In response, Bulkhead acknowledged the severe queueing situation, attributing part of the issue to being "rate limited." The developer stated it was collaborating with Valve to address these limitations and secure increased capacity comparable to "larger titles."
As a measure to alleviate the queuing problem, Bulkhead temporarily removed all players from the queue. The company's CEO, Joe Brammer, provided an update, clarifying that the queue system itself was functional but that Wardogs did not receive the same rate limit considerations as AAA games. He encouraged players to "hang in there."
Beyond the queueing issues, some players reported receiving bans that appeared to be issued without cause. Bulkhead has stated that it is aware of these "incorrect bans" and is actively working on resolving them.
Wardogs is a large-scale military FPS designed for 100 players across three teams, set on a map within a fictional Eastern European locale. In addition to its early access release on PC, Bulkhead has announced that console versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S are planned for a 2028 release.