A Tale of Two Indies

Daggerless Indie Dev Dispatch — Week of September 14, 2026

Wolverine unlocks tonight on the West Coast. Wardogs is already sitting on Steam like it owns the place. Valheim’s 1.0 week did not fade.

The week’s actual story: two early-access bets paid

Wardogs (FPS / large-scale sandbox, early access, Sept 10) crossed a million copies and is holding near the top of Steam concurrent — mid-300k players, day peaks over 400k. Very Positive so far. Players are already yelling at each other to close the doors. That is a live-service problem arriving on day four, which is the good kind of problem.

Valheim 1.0 (survival / sandbox / Norse co-op, Sept 9) is still a top-five Steam game five days later, with a 24-hour peak north of 300k. Deep North shipped. The lesson for anyone still sitting on a five-year EA page: a real 1.0 with a biome people wanted will move the chart. A version-number bump will not.

Out this week

• Marvel’s Wolverine (action-adventure, PS5) — Sept 15, midnight ET / 9pm PT tonight. No early access on either SKU. Reviews landed mixed-positive (OpenCritic around high 70s). Insomniac’s meaner cousin to Spider-Man, not a systems playground. Exclusive, $70.
• RuneScape: Dragonwilds 1.0 (survival / co-op, PC + consoles + Game Pass day one) — Sept 15. Jagex leaving EA the same week Iron Gate did.
• Aniimo (creature-collector RPG / transform-into-the-monster, PC / PS5 / Xbox) — Sept 16.
• Woodo (cozy diorama / puzzle) — Sept 16, wide platforms including Switch 2.
• Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave (SRPG, Switch 2) — Sept 17. Already leading the Switch 2 store off pre-load.
• Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter (JRPG) — Sept 17.
• Endless Legend 2 1.0 (4X) — Sept 17, with mod support already in.

Smaller PC pile worth a wishlist pass: Fright Train, Kernel Hearts, Oops! You’re the Hero!, Wanderburg if you missed last week.

Industry Notes

• Valve opened Steam Frame preorders. Standalone VR. Cheapest kit about $1,059 / £889. Reviews call the hardware classy and the price a wall.
• Blizzard dated two distant bets at BlizzCon: Diablo 5 (Spring 2029) and StarCraft Dominion (open-world FPS, 2030), framed as a boxed game rather than a season pass.
• Roblox said creators will be able to ship experiences as standalone apps on other storefronts. Test cohort first.
• Polyarc (Moss) is shutting down two months after a flatscreen port.
• A Last of Us 2 multiplayer mod died after a Sony letter.
• Subscription research this week: more than 40% of people canceling Game Pass / PS Plus / NSO cited price.
• Steam Party-Based RPG Fest runs Sept 14–21. Programming Fest follows Sept 17–20.
• Free Weekend on Borderlands 4 / Mordhau / Surviving Mars Relaunched / F1 25 / Crime Boss ends today at 1pm ET.
• Kenney shipped Tiny Factory, 130-plus factory tiles, CC0.

Free Tools & Assets

• Kenney.nl — new this week: Tiny Factory (130+ tiles). City Kit: Industrial also got an update.
• itch.io free assets and OpenGameArt.
• Epic Fab limited-time free through September 22: Sharur’s Normandy Village + PCG Plants, Sierra Division’s Industrial Infrastructure, VRhinoFX’s RPG Crafting & Environment VFX. Claim at fab.com/limited-time-free.

Daggerless Verdict

Wardogs and Valheim 1.0 are the PC week. Wolverine is the console event and it does not touch Steam. If you ship on Steam, the useful comparison is not Insomniac — it is a million-copy EA shooter in four days versus a five-year survival game that only exploded again when it actually left EA.

Price is the other through-line. Frame at a grand, subscription cancels over cost, Wolverine at $70 with no timed deluxe head start. Players will pay for a mode they want. They will not pay for a calendar.