The shooter that Tencent abandoned: Wardogs hits 2m sales in one weekend - The Game Business

Season 2 of Wardogs, the multiplayer sandbox FPS currently blasting and/or politely driving its way through early access, introduced an un usual "social experiment" when it launched yesterday. In an attempt to rehabilitate the reputation of its Lonestar faction, a.k.a the infamous Blue Team, developers Bulkhead began granting bonus XP and cash – the latter being the upgrade-focused game’s lifeblood – to Blue players alone. The hypothesis, apparently, was that more skilled players would give Lonestar a chance, helping boost its dismal winrates and perhaps improve its tarnished image. One day in, then, how’s it going? “We were wrong. We fucked up,” says Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer in a video announcing the bonus scheme’s immediate cancellation. Ah!

Wardogs developer Bulkhead had some strong words to say about the rough launch of Season 2, admitting: "We f***ed up. "Season 2 saw the introduction of XP and cash bonuses for people willing to play Blue Team, in an attempt to polish Lonestar’s tarnished reputation. Unfortunately, the idea backfired as more experienced players quickly boosted their accounts on Blue. Usually it takes a while for players to unlock some of the deadliest gear, but the XP and cash boosts saw players quickly kitted out in the best armor and the most annoying weapons. "We were wrong, we f***ed up," Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer said. "This was an experiment — we thought we'd have this in for about a week.” The boosts have already been removed in a hotfix. The cash and XP bonuses saw Blue Team go from the worst performing team to quickly dominating every match, attracting all the best players. The bonuses were 5% extra cash and 2.5% extra XP, but it was enough to attract the most try-hard players in the game. "The only comment that annoyed me is when people say, 'They didn't address the core issues [with Blue Team]," Brammer continued, talking about team spawn placement.