Bulkhead Checks Your Steam Hours Before Hiring You: Measurable Passion or a Questionable Filter?

Bulkhead, the British studio behind Wardogs, has decided that a résumé isn't enough to tell whether someone truly understands shooters. As reported by Gamereactor España, based on coverage from GamesRadar+, the company asks people applying for development roles to share their Steam records, paying special attention to the hours spent in first-person shooters. The idea is to confirm, before signing anything, whether the candidate has a real, long-standing relationship with the genre the studio is building.

A developer wanting people who know their turf is nothing new. What stands out is turning a play history into just another document in the hiring process, almost like an unintentional portfolio. For a community like ours, where many have racked up thousands of hours in competitive shooters and just as many make a living creating content about them, the news strikes a chord: how much is the time you spend playing worth when it comes time to look for a job in the industry?

What you need to know

• Bulkhead, the studio behind Wardogs, asks candidates to share their Steam playtime during the hiring process.
• The stated goal is to measure genuine passion for FPS games and identify profiles who care about the genre's fine, technical details.
• It isn't a veto: enjoying other genres, even ones far removed from shooters, doesn't count against the applicant.
• The philosophy was explained by senior producer Kane Allard and CEO Joe Brammer, in the context of the studio's recent success.
• The underlying information comes from Gamereactor España, which in turn cites GamesRadar+.

What exactly the studio is looking for

The key to Bulkhead's approach isn't the raw number of hours, but what those hours say about the person. According to the source, the studio wants to know whether the applicant notices the details that make a shooter work: how a weapon feels, the pacing of a match, how to read a map, the kind of things only someone who has spent enough time in the genre can judge with any authority. In other words, they're looking for people who speak the language of FPS fluently, not mere weekend dabblers.

Bulkhead stresses that this filter isn't meant to judge personal taste. The piece itself points to a Lovecraft-flavored extraction game, Waste: The Fallen, to illustrate that a candidate can enjoy completely different experiences without losing any value in the studio's eyes. What matters is that, on top of everything else, there's a deep immersion in the kind of game they're developing.

A context that explains the decision

The practice comes at a good moment for Bulkhead, which according to the original coverage is enjoying recent success. When a studio grows and needs to bring in talent quickly, sharpening the entry filter becomes a priority: hiring someone who doesn't connect with the project is costly in both time and team cohesion. Seen from that angle, asking for a Steam history is a cheap, direct way to check something a one-hour interview can hardly reveal.

It's worth underlining what the source doesn't say: there's no specific hour threshold, no list of mandatory titles, and no details on how that information is verified or weighted. It's a statement of hiring philosophy, not a published rulebook. Any interpretation beyond that is up to each reader.

Our take

At Underworld Lordz, we understand the intent. Anyone who has competed knows there are nuances in a shooter you can't learn from watching videos: the weight of recoil, the tempo of a gunfight, the difference between a map that flows and one that stalls. A studio wanting developers who can perceive that seems logical to us, and for our community it's, in a way, a validation: those late-night grind sessions also build professional judgment. If someday someone from our ranks wants to move to the other side of the screen, their play history could stop being an anecdote and become an argument.

That said, the method has obvious cracks. Steam hours measure time, not talent or understanding. There are players with huge numbers who have never once thought about why a weapon feels good, and brilliant programmers who play little because they have kids, two jobs, or simply another platform as their home base. Someone who has lived the genre on console, or in titles outside Steam, would show up with a thin profile that says nothing about their worth. And asking for access to a personal history in an interview opens an uncomfortable door regarding privacy and what else might end up being looked at.

We're also concerned about the silent bias. A filter like this favors those who have had free time and an active Steam account for years, and that isn't distributed equally among everyone. Bulkhead says it doesn't penalize other tastes, and we believe them, but the lack of clear criteria leaves the final judgment in the hands of whoever is reviewing. As a complementary signal, fine; as a gateway, tread very carefully.

What do you think?

The question goes straight to those who rack up shooter hours and those who create content about them: if you were asked for your Steam history in an interview tomorrow, would you see it as a chance to show what you know or as an intrusion that measures what it shouldn't? Tell us in the team chat or on our Discord.