WARDOGS Release Date and Unlock Times

WARDOGS Early Access Release Date: Thursday, September 10, 2026

WARDOGS enters Steam Early Access on Thursday, September 10, 2026, developer BULKHEAD and publisher Team17 have confirmed. The game launches PC-only on Steam at $39.99, with an expected Early Access window of roughly 1–2 years before the full release at a higher price. The date was locked in mid-August 2026, shortly after the game passed one million wishlists and two weeks before its closed beta weekend.

A Thursday launch is worth noting for planning purposes: unlike the traditional Friday drop, it puts the first full WARDOGS weekend just 24 hours after release, and the beta showed BULKHEAD is willing to switch servers on at US midday rather than midnight. If you are booking time off, Thursday afternoon through Sunday is the window that matters.

Date	Milestone
August 14, 2026	One million Steam wishlists announced
August 21–23, 2026	Closed beta weekend (servers opened 1 p.m. EDT Friday)
September 10, 2026	Early Access launch — $39.99, Steam PC
1–2 years after launch	Early Access growth: jets, new maps, weapons, systems
After Early Access	Full release at a higher price (roughly $59.99 expected)

For the full pricing ladder and what arrives later in Early Access, see the WARDOGS Early Access guide. If you came here from the beta, note that everything earned in the August test — wallet included — was wiped before launch.

What Time Does WARDOGS Unlock?

Here is the honest status: the exact unlock hour has not been announced. As of August 26, 2026, neither BULKHEAD nor the Steam store page has published a clock time for the September 10 launch. The store shows the release date with an “approximately two weeks” countdown and no hour attached, which is Steam’s standard display when a developer has not set (or not yet revealed) a precise unlock timestamp.

There are two legitimate reference points while we wait:

• The closed beta precedent. The August beta servers came online at 1 p.m. EDT / 10 a.m. PDT on Friday, August 21 — a mid-morning Pacific start, not a midnight one. It is the most recent evidence of how BULKHEAD and Team17 schedule go-live moments.
• Steam’s platform default. The overwhelming majority of Steam releases unlock at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET). Some launch at noon PT; midnight unlocks are rare for online-focused games because they brutalize launch-day server staffing.

Put together, 10 a.m. PT is the reasonable working assumption — an assumption, not a promise. When BULKHEAD confirms the hour, it will appear in three places: the WARDOGS Steam page countdown (rendered in your local time), a post in the official Discord announcements channel, and BULKHEAD’s X account. Check the store page countdown on launch week; it is the single authoritative source.

WARDOGS Unlock Time by Timezone

The table below converts the assumed 10 a.m. PT unlock (5 p.m. UTC) into major timezones. September 10 sits inside US and European daylight saving time, so summer offsets apply throughout; China, Japan, and Korea do not observe DST and their offsets are fixed year-round.

Timezone	Offset from UTC	Local unlock time
US Pacific (Los Angeles, PDT)	UTC−7	Thursday, Sep 10, 10:00 a.m.
US Mountain (Denver, MDT)	UTC−6	Thursday, Sep 10, 11:00 a.m.
US Central (Chicago, CDT)	UTC−5	Thursday, Sep 10, 12:00 p.m.
US Eastern (New York, EDT)	UTC−4	Thursday, Sep 10, 1:00 p.m.
Brazil (Brasília, BRT)	UTC−3	Thursday, Sep 10, 2:00 p.m.
UTC / GMT	—	Thursday, Sep 10, 5:00 p.m.
UK (London, BST)	UTC+1	Thursday, Sep 10, 6:00 p.m.
Central Europe (Berlin, Paris, CEST)	UTC+2	Thursday, Sep 10, 7:00 p.m.
China (Beijing, BJT)	UTC+8	Friday, Sep 11, 1:00 a.m.
Japan / South Korea (JST / KST)	UTC+9	Friday, Sep 11, 2:00 a.m.
East Australia (Sydney, AEST)	UTC+10	Friday, Sep 11, 3:00 a.m.

Three practical readings of that table:

• Europe gets a prime-time launch. A 6–7 p.m. unlock means the first evening of WARDOGS is a full gaming session, not a bleary-eyed midnight sprint.
• Asia-Pacific crosses midnight. Beijing, Tokyo, and Sydney players start in the small hours of Friday September 11. If that is you and the hour stays unconfirmed at launch week, plan for Friday night instead of burning leave on a guess.
• If the confirmed hour differs, the delta is uniform. Every row shifts by the same amount — a noon PT unlock moves each entry down two hours; a 9 a.m. PT unlock moves them up one.

Can You Preload WARDOGS Before Launch?

Preload has not been announced — as of August 26, 2026 the Steam page lists no preload date for either standard preorders or the Supporter Edition. That is normal; many Steam games only switch preloading on in the final days before release.

What is confirmed, and worth acting on now:

1. Budget 50 GB of disk space. The Steam system requirements list 50 GB of required storage, and Easy Anti-Cheat installs alongside the game — blocking that install blocks the game. Details are in the system requirements breakdown.
2. Know how Steam preload works when it appears. If BULKHEAD enables it, preorders get a “Preload” button on the library entry, download the encrypted build early, and it decrypts the moment the unlock time hits. Buying on launch day itself means queueing behind everyone else’s download.
3. Watch the right channels. Preload windows are announced via Steam news posts on the store page and the official Discord. During the beta, preorder and playtest paths received the build ahead of servers going live, so a similar arrangement for launch is plausible — but it is unconfirmed until posted.

One honest warning from every big multiplayer launch ever: even with a perfect preload, the first hour belongs to login queues, matchmaking pileups, and hotfixes. The beta existed precisely to soften that, but plan your evening for “playing by 8 p.m.”, not “playing at unlock.”

What Unlocks at Early Access Launch

When the countdown hits zero on September 10, the entire confirmed Early Access package goes live at once — there is no staggered content rollout on day one:

Feature	Available at EA launch?
100-player matches, three factions (Valkyra / Lonestar / Manticore)	Yes
Kolchia — 256 km² map, random 2×2 km control zones, first to 100 points	Yes
In-match cash economy: $10,000 starting wallet, per-life loadout buys	Yes
Tanks, self-propelled artillery, APCs, transport + attack helicopters, civilian vehicles	Yes
FOB building and large-scale destruction	Yes
Weight system, ballistic arcs, proximity voice chat	Yes
Easy Anti-Cheat	Yes
Fighter jets	No — join during Early Access
New maps, expanded weapon categories, deeper progression	No — added over the EA window
Console versions	Not confirmed — Steam PC only

Two things that do not unlock on September 10: beta progress (fully wiped — every wallet resets to the standard starting cash, covered in the money guide) and the full-release content list (jets and the seasonal metagame arrive across the 1–2 year Early Access period).

Launch Day Checklist

Run through this before the countdown ends and your first match will go far better than the average day-one drop:

1. Verify your hardware against the system requirements — minimum is a GTX 1660 / RX 590 with 16 GB RAM, targeting 1080p Low at 60 fps.
2. Prep your settings plan with the best settings guide so you are not rebuilding sensitivity and graphics options while the server fills.
3. Clear 50 GB and let Easy Anti-Cheat install with the game.
4. Check the Steam countdown on launch week for the confirmed hour in your timezone — treat the table above as the baseline, the store page as the truth.
5. Learn the economy before you learn the maps. WARDOGS punishes players who show up with empty wallets and expensive habits; the beginner guide covers the first ten minutes that decide the next hour.
6. Pick a role, not a fantasy. Logi driver, sniper, FOB engineer, and line infantry all earn cash; the roles overview explains which pays in credits and which pays in squad goodwill.

For everything surrounding the launch itself — pricing, the roadmap to 1.0, and whether to buy at all — continue to the Early Access guide, and for how the August beta previewed all of this, see the beta access recap.