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

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/the-history-of-wardogs-studio-bulkhead-from-awful-beginnings-to-3-million-early-access-sales/
- Published: 2026-11-15T14:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-15T14:20:25+00:00
- Original publisher: GamesRadar+
- Original article: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/fps/the-history-of-wardogs-studio-bulkhead-the-latest-fps-breakout-on-going-from-awful-beginnings-to-3-million-early-access-sales/
- Topics: Gaming

## Key points

- Bulkhead grew from a student team into a games studio.
- Pneuma earned about £400,000 in six months.
- Battalion 1944’s servers failed at 12,345 players.

## Summary

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.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.