The history of Wardogs studio Bulkhead – from “awful” beginnings to 3+ million early access sales

Bulkhead founder Joe Brammer says the studio began with a lie on an application to Microsoft’s ID@Xbox programme, which helped a group of university friends secure development support. Its first game, Pneuma: Breath of Life, was imperfect but earned about £400,000 in its first six months, helping the team establish Bulkhead and make The Turing Test.

The studio then shifted from puzzles to Battalion 1944, a World War II shooter inspired by older Call of Duty games. Despite a successful Kickstarter and strong pre-release attention, the game struggled to keep players engaged, and its launch servers crashed when the player count reached 12,345 because of a limit in the Google service it used. The article presents the episode as a major setback in Bulkhead’s rise, before its later Wardogs success.