Bulkhead Reportedly Checks Applicants’ Steam Hours When Hiring FPS Developers
Bulkhead, the studio behind Wardogs, reportedly examines prospective developers’ Steam records as part of its recruitment process, according to GamesRadar+. The outlet reports that applicants are asked to share their Steam hours so the studio can assess how much genuine enthusiasm they have for first-person shooters before joining the team.
Despite the unusual screening step, the report stresses this isn’t used as a blanket judgement on someone’s overall taste in games. Enjoying other genres, even ones far removed from shooters such as the Lovecraftian extraction shooter featured in Waste: The Fallen, reportedly doesn’t count against a candidate in Bulkhead’s eyes. Instead, the studio is said to be looking for whether applicants care about the fine detail of the FPS titles they would be working on.
The account comes from GamesRadar+’s coverage of Bulkhead’s recent success, and draws on comments attributed to senior producer Kane Allard and executive director Joe Brammer, who discussed the studio’s hiring philosophy.
According to the report, the approach treats familiarity with the FPS genre as a form of professional expertise rather than simply a personal preference, comparable to the kind of granular systems knowledge players display in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s multiplayer. For Bulkhead, this is said to reflect a deliberate strategy to build a team of developers who closely understand both the audience for shooters and the finer points of designing them.
The revelation arrives as Bulkhead continues to be discussed in the context of its ongoing work, including Wardogs and Waste: The Fallen, with GamesRadar+’s coverage framing the Steam-hours check as part of a broader look at the studio’s recent momentum. No further details of the hiring process, such as specific thresholds for playtime, have been disclosed.
The story has circulated among gaming outlets amid a busy week of industry news, including reports on Tokyo Game Show 2026 scheduling changes and comments from former Naughty Dog director Bruce Straley regarding God of War. Bulkhead’s hiring practice stands out as a rare public glimpse into how a shooter-focused studio weighs candidates’ personal gaming habits against traditional CV credentials.