How Wardogs Brought Back the Golden Age of Shooters

On the 31st of August, the studio behind Splitgate switched off its servers and signed off with one line: see you in the server browser. Ten days later, Wardogs came out with nothing but a server browser, and sold three million copies in sixteen days. It was made by a studio that had tried to bring back the old days once before, and ended with forty players. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:48 A puzzle studio from Derby 1:28 Battalion 1944: the first try 3:48 King of the Hill: the mod 5:15 Six years of cuts 6:18 The pitch: a server browser 10:18 The betas 10:57 Launch night 12:44 The numbers 13:32 What isn't old 15:02 Five thousand SOURCES Every fact on screen, with its outlet, author, date and link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ro-Ppn_QwvCP9WiWx26HRxmx4q8R1iLJ CLIPS Used under fair use, for commentary and criticism. Only the seconds the story needs, each credited on screen. Arrrash, Can You Still Play Battalion 1944?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_I127DcTc8 Asmongold TV, Now I get why everyone's playing this..: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyxTkZuKCJg Whoh, Always TRUST The Pilot in WARDOGS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYnimIBAi8Q Tentedog, WARDOGS: an enemy revived me, so I betrayed my team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g31QekGjGU jackfrags, WARDOGS Is Actually Incredible...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKUmqU7rWR8 jackfrags, WARDOGS Gameplay and Impressions...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAE9LOV-p3s MxgicFPS, I Played WARDOGS Early as a SNIPER, It's Actually INSANE...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xcG-kHxi8Y slorgs, The New Shooter Made For Old Men: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AhJHxUP5ts HutchMF, Hutch Reacts to WARDOGS CEO Responding to Critics Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3ImOYGYJVs BULKHEAD, WARDOGS | Launch Day Recap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=240spQbhgIA BULKHEAD, WARDOGS | Evolving the King of the Hill Mod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCx4tH2nJk8 summit1g, Summit1g Gets BANNED on Wardogs for Cheating!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwnuc6Tt2po TheBurntPeanut, LIVE | WARDOGS | ITS GO TIME: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt_utGbae4I Airwingmarine, WARDOGS Season 2 Is Coming... But There's a Catch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb4Lu0Wm99g jackfrags, WARDOGS has 2 Million Players Now...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEkYa8rQIpg The Game Business Show, Joe Brammer interview (stills): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX6MWC71y38 The Plays, Blitzkrieg Masters Amsterdam trailer (2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt-PhFh3mQ8 IGN, Battalion 1944 Wartide mode gameplay (2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnvs6p9MZwU JaxsonvilleMan, the WARDOGS gold market: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj9qXOHFE4o FOOTAGE AND IMAGES For commentary and criticism: WARDOGS announcement, gameplay, game mode and launch trailers (Bulkhead / Team17); BATTALION 1944 Early Access, competitive, Wartide 2.0 and making-of videos (Bulkhead / Square Enix, 2017-18); BATTALION: Legacy trailer (Bulkhead); Pneuma: Breath of Life and The Turing Test (Bulkhead); Splitgate: Arena Reloaded Season 2 trailer (1047 Games); Arma 3 launch trailer (Bohemia Interactive). From Steam. Store art from Steam. Screenshots of WARDOGS' server browser and Battlefield 6 Portal via PC Gamer; Transformers: Reactivate art via Game Developer; Highguard art via PC Gamer; Call of Duty Season 05 and battle pass art (Activision); Fortnite battle pass art (Epic Games); Apex Legends skin via GameSpot; WARDOGS Twitch drops via GameSpot; WARDOGS images from wardogs.com. Logos: Wikimedia Commons (public domain), Steam, and the companies' own sites. MUSIC "Equatorial Complex" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au), released under CC-BY 4.0: 'The Miracle of Flight', 'Chasing Daylight', 'Snowfall', 'Electric Dreams', 'Red', 'Starfire', 'Terminus', 'Titan', 'Simulacra', 'Legacy', 'Invocation', 'Hiraeth'. SOUND EFFECTS Freesound, CC0 (credited as a courtesy): "Woosh" by florianreichelt: https://freesound.org/people/florianreichelt/sounds/683096/ "Swoosh.ogg" by WizardOZ: https://freesound.org/people/WizardOZ/sounds/419341/ "Computer Keyboard - single key - type 7 - space bar.wav" by yottasounds: https://freesound.org/people/yottasounds/sounds/380143/ "Sharpie marker drawing circle 01.wav" by elliott.klein: https://freesound.org/people/elliott.klein/sounds/321137/ "Far_Off_Boom.wav" by CaCtUs2003: https://freesound.org/people/CaCtUs2003/sounds/147584/ #wardogs #fps #gaming