Joe Brammer, CEO of Bulkhead Interactive, spent most of this week on the back foot. A podcast appearance where he said his studio screens applicants' social media for anti-crunch messaging, and expects staff to crunch when necessary, triggered a wave of criticism across the industry. Now, after an initial response on X that didn't exactly calm things down, Brammer has issued a more detailed statement addressing both the crunch practices and the social media screening controversy.
What Brammer actually said on the podcast
The original comments came from Brammer's appearance on The Game Business, a podcast hosted by Chris Dring. The conversation turned to work culture at Bulkhead, and Brammer was upfront: he expects crunch to happen at some point, and he doesn't hide that from potential hires.
"If you care about the work you're making and the result of what you make here, this is a place to work," he said. "If you don't, you will feel slave-driven."
Then came the line that set everything off: "We will check people's socials, and if you're constantly tweeting anti-crunch messaging: 'This should never ever be a thing', we know that and go, 'Look, you're not going to be happy here, so we're not going to go with you'."
Earlier in the same interview, Brammer had also said plainly: “They know I expect people to crunch. I own that. I don't try and hide it.”
The X response that made things worse
Brammer's first public response, posted on X, pushed back on coverage he felt misrepresented his position. He specifically called out the use of the word "mandatory" to describe crunch at Bulkhead, saying "No information says mandatory, they made this up."
He followed that with a list of counter-points: a four-day work week that ran for two years during development, 80 percent of the studio's shares owned by 50 percent of staff, and the entire month of December given as paid time off. The post landed as defensive to many, given that Brammer had explicitly said on tape that he expects crunch.
What the new statement actually says
Brammer's fuller statement covers the one concrete instance of crunch he can point to. In June 2026, with the Wardogs beta build running late, he asked staff to work an extra 2 hours per day, Monday through Thursday, for 4 weeks (16 working days). He described it as optional, noting that four people opted out with no consequences, while also acknowledging that social pressure within a tight-knit team could make those individuals "feel less than great."
The technical reason for the specific 2-hour window was build times. The extra hours allowed the team to get one additional build per day reviewed and through QA, rather than waiting on overnight builds.
On the social media screening question, Brammer said he was "speaking informally about our culture" rather than describing a formal recruitment process. He added that where publicly available information is considered during hiring, it's done in line with UK employment and data protection law, and that Bulkhead doesn't access private accounts or conduct covert checks.
"My comments were really about being upfront about the kind of studio we are and making sure it's the right fit for both sides," he said.
Context that matters: Wardogs is a genuine success story
None of this is happening in a vacuum. Wardogs sold 2 million copies in its first five days on Steam, putting Bulkhead in a position most small UK studios never reach. Brammer confirmed in the same podcast that staff who own shares in the company will receive bonuses tied to that performance, and described the potential for junior employees with two or three years at the studio to receive enough to put a down payment on a house.
That context doesn't resolve the crunch debate, but it does explain why Brammer framed the harder working periods as part of a broader deal: you work hard when it counts, and you share in the result. Whether that framing holds up depends entirely on how consistently it plays out in practice.
The console versions of Wardogs, for reference, are currently targeting a 2028 release. Brammer said the team pushed back against pressure to accelerate that timeline specifically because he didn't want to put the development team through another crunch period.
If you're playing Wardogs right now and running into technical issues, the WARDOGS crash and launch fix guide and the voice chat troubleshooting guide cover the most common PC problems. The broader conversation around crunch in the games industry isn't going anywhere, and Bulkhead's next public milestone, the console release window, will be worth watching for how the studio manages expectations with its team. For more coverage on Wardogs and other titles, the full WARDOGS closed beta playtest guide has additional context on how the game reached this point.
