Bulkhead takes December off after Wardogs Early Access launch

Bulkhead Studios will take December 2026 off after Wardogs’ Early Access launch, so staff can rest before the game’s 1.0 launch, CEO Joe Brammer said in an Edge Magazine interview. Players will wait longer for bug fixes and balance changes because the studio is closed all month, Droidfeats reported.

“We’re going to make sure players know they can fk off in December,” he said. “Go play GTA 6, we need to detox.” He said both in an Edge Magazine interview.

Grand Theft Auto 6 launches November 19 for PS5 and Xbox but is not launching on PC this November, IGN reported. Bulkhead hopes players will return to Wardogs once they finish with Leonida, Yahoo Tech reported.

Wardogs is a tactical FPS that lets 100 players fight across an enormous map, Kotaku reported. It launched in Early Access on PC in September 2026, with Beebom specifying September 10 as the release date. LevelUp reported sales of over one million copies, while Kotaku estimated around five million copies after more than 400,000 concurrent players at launch.

Kotaku said Wardogs originally targeted about 5,000 concurrent players but reached 84 times that number during its first week, and Wardogs still reaches over 100,000 simultaneous players a day. Wardogs Season 2 launched to disappointment and widespread backlash over balance changes and updates, leading the team to spend weeks working constantly to calm its player base.

PCGamesN said the Season 2 economy wipe was quickly erased by rapid leveling speeds and that Bulkhead rushed content into Season 2 despite saying it would not add content during Early Access. Brammer said quality dropped because the team pushed content out instead of iterating and acknowledged his leadership failed after saying the studio had no plan.

Fears and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from Battalion 1944, for which Bulkhead refunded Kickstarter backers, shaped Season 2, PCGamesN reported. Brammer said the studio cannot do monthly seasons and is planning three-month refreshes with a smaller update halfway through.

Wardogs Season 3 is scheduled for Thursday November 12 with a fresh economy reset and limited servers removing power weapons and vehicles, PCGamesN reported. Season 3 will introduce limited primitive servers to replicate the low-to-mid game.

Brammer said every Wardogs team member performed tasks outside their job description and wore multiple hats because they saw a path to success, he told Edge Magazine. He called the break payback for months of staff covering roles outside their normal jobs, Droidfeats reported.

Bulkhead is confident players will eventually return to Wardogs after December, Beebom reported, and Brammer wants the team to return with fresh energy to address recent missteps in Wardogs, LevelUp reported. Bulkhead sees the GTA 6 console launch period as the perfect pause point even though the game is not coming to PC until later, LevelUp reported.

Analysts expect GTA 6 to make over $5 billion in its launch week alone, IGN and Droidfeats reported, and GTA 6 is expected to be the biggest entertainment launch of all time, IGN reported. GTA 6 is expected to dominate every gaming conversation for the remainder of the year or more, Beebom reported.