With over two million copies sold in five days, WARDOGS is the shooter of the moment! It’s a resounding success, but one that’s been accompanied by a bit of controversy following remarks by Joe Brammer, CEO of Bulkhead Studios.

In an interview with The Game Business, Brammer offered a candid insight into how his company operates. Crunch, which is working long hours without pay to finish game development, is a common practice at the studio. Thus, any developer who criticizes this method would have no chance of being hired at Bulkhead.

"A lot of people who may have an issue with crunch – rightly so, I understand that issue, we always try and avoid it, but we don’t hide that this is going to happen at some point – they often don’t make it in the door. We want to be known for that: this is a place you come to work hard. If you care about the work you’re making and the result of what you make here, you’ll feel really valued. If you don’t, you will feel slave-driven."

To avoid hiring someone who wouldn’t appreciate this work style, recruiters at Bulkhead scour social media. Public statements against crunch time are a deal-breaker before candidates even make it to an interview.

"We 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’.

If we’re going to be a company who says, ‘We do crunch’, then we have to also say, ‘But you get something for it.’ We want people to know that those people who do work hard get that return, and it is life-changing."

Over the past six years, Bulkhead has laid off 20% of its workforce.