Wardogs season 3 launch date confirmed with mass ban wave

A longer seasonal schedule is coming to Wardogs

The developer is moving to a three-month season schedule after deciding that Season 2 advanced too quickly.

The new timetable brings back the more measured pace of the first season, giving players longer to complete objectives and make progress before the next update.

Chief executive Joe Brammer said the extra time would also help the team prepare future content.

"Season 3 is about giving players a new battlefield to learn together and a progression journey worth spending time on," he said. "Longer seasons give everyone more room to reach their own goals, and give us the time to properly develop what comes next."

185,000 accounts permanently banned ahead of season 3

Season 3 will also introduce a close-quarters urban map, a full wipe and a new Limited Mode that removes access to the strongest equipment. 

Bulkhead hopes the changes will make matches more balanced for people starting out, as well as those returning after a break.

The update comes alongside the biggest ban wave in the game's history. 

Bulkhead has permanently removed 185,000 accounts associated with cheating, real-money trading and gold-farming operations. Those accounts have also lost their access to server hosting.

The studio says it was able to accelerate its anti-cheat work after analysing 187 million hours of gameplay from almost four million unique players. 

It used that data to train machine-learning models, allowing it to introduce improvements that had originally been scheduled for 2027.

The full details of the update and Bulkhead's announcement are available in Eurogamer's report on Season 3.