Joe Brammer, CEO of Bulkhead, the developer behind The Turing Test, Battalion 1944, and now the hugely successful new release Wardogs, has found himself in somewhat hot water, following a revealing interview where he discussed work culture at the UK studio.
After a day of heated social media debate and an initial response via X, Brammer has now issued a statement to Eurogamer. In it, he explains the exact nature of the studio's "crunch" practices, and clarifies that his mention of monitoring the social media of potential applicants to the studio - a potential legal grey area in the UK - was a case of "speaking informally about our culture".
To rewind a little, the response to Brammer's comments began following his recent appearance on The Game Business, where he discussed a number of topics around the culture and running of the Bulkhead studio and, when the conversation shifted to crunch, revealed he expects his team to do so where necessary.
"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," he told podcast host Chris Dring. "[Those people] often don't make it in the door, because 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, this is a place to work. You'll feel really valued. If you don't, you will feel slave-driven," Brammer explained. "It's a constant to-and-fro with that."
"But 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'."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, those comments then caused something of a backlash.
In response, Brammer said on X the articles covering his comments had taken them "out of context", specifically singling out a PC Gamer article, for its use of the word "mandatory" to describe crunch at the studio.
"No information says mandatory, they made this up," said Brammer, before going on to list a number of other "facts" - some of which were discussed in the interview, such as having a four-day work week for half of the game's development time, 80 percent of shares being owned by 50 percent of staff, "everyone" at the studio being given the month of December off work, and that the studio "made a game you like and our staff will be rewarded for it accordingly".
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.eurogamer.net/wardogs-ceo-new-response-crunch-backlash-social-media-monitoring-statement
