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Alpha / Historical

WARDOGS Alpha and Beta History

The documented WARDOGS Closed Alpha ran August 7–9, 2026. Two beta periods followed before Steam Early Access launched on September 10. This archive explains the public test history and access changes; it does not offer access to a completed test.

Checked · FOBDROP, created by stoltzr

Historical reference. These details describe earlier builds and may differ from the current season.

Before the Closed Alpha

WARDOGS is developed by BULKHEAD and published by Team17. Team17 published a reveal article dated February 5, 2026, announcing a Steam Early Access target that year. The Steam announcement-trailer post has a separate timestamp of February 9 at 01:02 UTC, or February 8 in US Eastern time. “Revealed in February 2026” avoids confusing those publication dates.

On February 19, BULKHEAD said its designers had spent years collaborating with the original ARMA King of the Hill mod creators on a standalone FPS inspired by that mode. This describes its design lineage; WARDOGS is a separate game.

The June 6 gameplay announcement introduced extended pre-alpha footage after the Future Games Show trailer. It described more than three years of development, 100-player battles, proximity voice, construction and destruction. On June 7, the studio said a small group of real players had already tested pre-alpha builds for months, with more players joining during June. June was an expansion of testing, not an established first playable build.

What the early game was built around

The February 18 Top Questions post described three teams competing in a randomized 2 × 2 km Control Zone within a 256 km² map. The team with the largest presence earns points; the first to 100 wins. A smaller moving Hot Zone doubles a player’s contribution and cash rewards. It named Lonestar, Valkyra and Manticore, the fictional setting Kolchia, and the contested resource PV-1.

Its economy linked equipment purchases to cash earned through play, with cash persisting between matches and Gold Bars used for cosmetic purchases. Roles were defined by equipment choices. Those are dated design descriptions, not a complete verification of every mechanic in the current build.

The separate developer FAQ explicitly said cash earned in early pre-alpha tests would not carry into the full game. That statement does not establish the carry-over rules for every later test, setting, statistic or cosmetic entitlement.

The April 7 Early Access & Beyond post described Black Market and Vault features, player skills and challenges as a metagame to be built during Early Access. Their appearance in a pre-release plan is not proof that they were available in alpha or at launch.

July: development updates and the alpha announcement

A July 16 development update described collecting environmental references in Georgia, performance work across different hardware, and adjustable graphics settings. These are developer statements about the work; they do not guarantee a frame rate on a particular computer.

Official posts scheduled the first WARDOGS livestream for July 23 at 18:00 UTC, with developers playing alongside community testers. BULKHEAD’s Closed Alpha Announcement video, published July 23, directly names August 7–9 as the test window.

August 7–9: Closed Alpha

The August 7–9 Closed Alpha was a limited development test. Its announced dates are supported by BULKHEAD’s own video. The August 11 preorder announcement retrospectively confirms that the Closed Alpha had taken place the previous weekend.

On August 11, BULKHEAD lifted the NDA for stored footage from that Closed Alpha weekend. It expressly kept ETP playtests under NDA. The notice was not blanket permission to publish material from every private test, build or channel.

The same announcement said the studio had reached a limit on externally distributed Steam keys and could no longer grant keys through the original signup process. For the following beta it offered limited random Steam Playtest invitations and guaranteed access through preorders. These are historical rules, not current instructions for obtaining an alpha key.

August 21–23: first Closed Beta

The August 11 announcement scheduled a Closed Beta for August 21–23 and Steam Early Access for September 10. The August 20 schedule post said the first invitation wave and preload were available, and allowed players to share footage and streams.

With preorder demand above expectations, the studio said it would initially add fewer people from the general signup pool while evaluating server scaling and stability. The August 24 recap confirms that the weekend beta had ended.

The official schedule includes an image. This archive does not reproduce exact opening and closing hours from that image because its text has not been independently checked here.

September: Beta 02 becomes an open test

On September 1, BULKHEAD announced Closed Beta 02 for after The FPS Games Show on September 3, whose scheduled start was 18:00 UTC. The post tied access to the show; it should not be read as evidence of the exact second servers became available.

The test initially used preorder access and invitation waves. The stated purpose was to test systems under load, including server scaling and browsing, Twitch Drops, DLC entitlements, voice chat and the login queue.

On September 5, an official post announced that the closed beta was now open. It said the beta would end Sunday at 08:00 UTC: September 6 on that calendar. Both descriptions therefore belong in the history—Beta 02 began as a controlled test and was later opened more widely.

September 10: Steam Early Access

The September 10 launch announcement said WARDOGS was releasing into Steam Early Access that day; the Steam store records the same release date. The announcement also named 2028 for consoles. The PC release is a completed event, while the console date is a future announced target.

Old alpha and beta registration articles should point readers toward current Steam access. Their completed test windows should remain visible as history rather than being rewritten as present-day invitations.

What this archive can and cannot establish

Public announcements establish the major milestones above. They do not provide a complete calendar of private ETP sessions, every alpha build identifier, or a numerical balance changelog for every test. This page does not claim that those records have been recovered.

Alpha footage is useful evidence of a dated build. A weapon price, unlock requirement, damage value or performance result from that footage should retain its recording date and build context until checked against current evidence. Publishing a video does not make its numbers current.

If you find a missing or incorrect historical claim, report the page section, the proposed correction, and a dated primary-source link. A community report starts a review; it does not automatically replace the published record.

Sources

  1. Team17 — WARDOGS Reveal Trailer

    Official

  2. BULKHEAD — Official Announcement Trailer

    Official

  3. BULKHEAD — WARDOGS Top Questions

    Official

  4. BULKHEAD — Evolving the King of the Hill Mod

    Official

  5. WARDOGS developer FAQ — historical pre-alpha guidance

    Developer statement

  6. BULKHEAD — Early Access & Beyond

    Official

  7. BULKHEAD — Gameplay Trailer and Extended Pre-Alpha Reveal

    Official

  8. BULKHEAD — Pre-Alpha Announcement

    Official

  9. BULKHEAD — Level Design & Performance

    Official

  10. BULKHEAD — First WARDOGS Livestream

    Official

  11. BULKHEAD — Closed Alpha Announcement

    Official

  12. BULKHEAD — Preorders, Closed Beta and Alpha NDA Notice

    Official

  13. BULKHEAD — Closed Beta Schedule

    Official

  14. BULKHEAD — Beta Recap & Next Steps

    Official

  15. BULKHEAD — Closed Beta 02 Announcement

    Official

  16. BULKHEAD — The Closed Beta Is Now an Open Beta

    Official

  17. BULKHEAD — WARDOGS Launch Trailer

    Official

  18. WARDOGS on Steam — release date and product details

    Official

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