The CEO of Wardogs maker Bulkhead, Joe Brammer, has clarified his remarks on crunch.
Speaking to Knowledge, the executive insisted that he is not “pro crunch” but is rather “pro hard work”. This follows Brammer telling The Games Business that Bulkhead would not hire people who “constantly tweet anti-crunch messaging”.
The CEO later tried to clarify his remarks after a backlash, issuing a statement to Eurogamer in which he said that his staff worked an extra two hours per week Monday-to-Thursday for four weeks, adding that the studio works a four-day week.
“Just to be clear for the record, I’m not pro crunch, I am pro hard work. I just love making games,” Brammer told Knowledge.
“Defining crunch is really hard. It’s subjective, but to me, if people work overtime, they should be rewarded for that. When I came into the industry, it was the EA Spouse era. Companies were making games for two years and planning for six months of working weekends and 10-hour days. It’s horrendous behaviour that you’ve planned for it.”
Brammer also responded to some of the criticism he has received personally, which largely questioned his management style at Bulkhead.
“I really don’t agree with the ‘it’s just bad management and bad production’ argument against crunch,” he said.
“That is such a bullshit mentality. Making a new IP is hard, especially with new tech – we helped make some of the things in Unreal Engine 5, we’re at the cutting edge. When things don’t quite work how we want, we can’t always go, ‘oh, we’ll delay the game a month.’ That’s just not how it works.”
He added: “The conversations that happen in private are a lot different than the conversations that happen in public. I would bet that more people agree with me.”
Bulkhead was spun out of Tencent in December 2025. The studio’s most recent title, military shooter Wardogs, has sold over three million copies in its first 18 days on sale.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz earlier this year, Brammer discussed the studio’s time working under Tencent and what the developer’s aspirations are for Wardogs.