CEO of WARDOGS developer Bulkhead, Joe Brammer, has confirmed that the multiplayer shooter will see price increases as it goes through Early Access. In an interview with GamesRadar, he said that, by the time WARDOGS hits version “0.5”, it will be priced at $49.99. After spending two years in Early Access, Brammer said that the shooter will cost $59.99.
As for players who might have been waiting to get into WARDOGS and aren’t fans of the gradual price hikes, Brammer said that they should simply not buy the game. Aside from potential discounts from Steam’s various events, WARDOGS is at the lowest price point it will ever be at. The decision largely stems from the fact that the shooter will continue to get a lot of new content over time, which Brammer said justifies the price going up.
“If you don’t want to get in now, wait for there to be more content, more stuff, buy it later. You want to buy in cheap now? That’s fine too. But really, we just think it’s fair to scale the price as the game becomes bigger and bigger and bigger.”
Brammer went on to note that WARDOGS “costs a lot to make”, and that players that are looking for cheaper shooters might want to look elsewhere. “That’s absolutely fine,” he said. “But this is what our game is worth. Our game is worth this, and if you don’t agree with that, please don’t buy it.”
Sustainability is also a major issue for Bulkhead. Brammer acknowledged that, while there are plenty of issues with WARDOGS that still need to be fixed, “players should expect the quality that we deliver for that price.” He went on to say, “We believe that our price needs to go up to make this game sustainable. Otherwise, how can we support the game long term? It is a big FPS game that costs money to make. The end.”
WARDOGS was released on PC as an Early Access game earlier this month, and has proven to be a near-instant hit, crossing two million sales shortly after coming out. Since then, Bulkhead has continued to work on updates for the shooter, and the studio is currently gearing up to release content as part of the second season slated for release on October 15th.
A teaser for the second season was released this week, and while not too many details were released, the trailer has indicated that we might see some new weather effects making their way into the multiplayer shooter. Since Bulkhead had also noted that it took plenty of inspiration from the real world when it came to the design of WARDOGS’ maps, we might also get to see a new level make its way into the game.
Earlier this month, Brammer also caused some controversy when he discussed the nature of crunch during game development, and how the studio wants to make sure that its potential employees don’t criticize the practice on social media. He also admitted that, while crunch isn’t mandatory at Bulkhead, there is an element of social pressure that ends up enforcing it.
