Wardogs developers didn't expect such popularity and aren't ready to release content at the pace needed to retain players

Wardogs hit Steam early access and picked up hundreds of thousands of players in less than two weeks. That kind of launch is every developer dream, but this sort of success comes with a flip side. The team now has to manage serious pressure and rising expectations from an audience hungry for the game future.

Joe Brammer, executive director on Wardogs and CEO of developer Bulkhead, spoke candidly to GamesRadar+ about the challenges facing his team.

We weren't making it for this size audience. It just so happens that a lot of the audience seem to agree with our way of thinking right now, and what they want to see in an FPS game. We're really happy about that, but would have been happy with less, right?

Brammer openly admits Bulkhead won't be able to please everyone. The developers have to pick their battles to keep things moving efficiently, especially with 1.0 coming into view.

We managed our expectations and other people's expectations.

According to Brammer, there simply won't be enough content to satisfy everyone, and the pace of development won't match the demand from players.

We're not going to have enough content for people, and we're not going to be able to keep up with the demand. That's going to happen, but that doesn't mean people won't have a lot of fun, and then we'll deliver a great 1.0, and that's where our focus really is. It's growing the game for the 1.0 launch on console.

This pragmatic approach is reassuring. Brammer is likely right that part of the community will drift away over time if the pace of updates and new content doesn't match expectations – something that happens to nearly every popular game eventually.

ARC Raiders went through something similar, peaking hard right after launch before settling into a smaller but no less dedicated player base. Bulkhead already seeing this coming and accepting it as a given works in the team favor, making the road to a full release that much smoother.

Brammer also noted that balancing updates currently sit near the top of the studio to-do list. Based on his comments, there's likely still plenty of tweaking ahead before the playerbase feels fully satisfied with the balance.