BULKHEAD Derby reviews

Bulkhead has gone through repeated rounds of layoffs: ~5 people in July 2024, another 5–10 in December, then a large hiring push in April 2025 (complete with a public trailer), followed by a much bigger wave of layoffs around July 2025. This pattern isn’t new, hiring sprees followed by sudden cuts are routine here. And random terminations are common, probation means nothing here. Your 2 years of no-legal protection by UK law is your probation. Before the most recent layoffs, employees were pressured to post 5-star Glassdoor reviews using their Bulkhead emails. Many reviews share the exact same posting date for a reason; The company had been sitting around 1.8 stars before this “initiative.” We were told our jobs could be at risk with the low rating, ironically many of the people who wrote reviews are now laid off too. Bulkhead treats employees as disposable. People are hired with promises of long-term roles, only to be let go a few months later after delivering the specific asset or feature they were brought in for. The justification is often “performance,” regardless of actual contribution. It’s common for people to feel anxious when HR walks by, and its a known part of bulkhead culture to be tapped on the shoulder "tap of death" and sent home permenantly. I was told about it when I joined, but I didn't believe it until I saw it happen to someone, and then to myself. They do it in waves to avoid legal trouble of terminating too many employees within the 45 day legal window. The culture feels like a lads’ locker room and has been described as such in many reviews predating the sudden wave of 5-star posts. Benefits are unstable: the 4-day work week was quietly removed, and after years of being anti-WFH, they now offer remote work, but historically, WFH employees have been pushed out or forced back to the office once convenient for leadership (except directors) (Check glassdoor reviews after covid). Top leadership has only ever worked at Bulkhead since university, and the studio has yet to release a notable title beyond a failed Kickstarter project that ended in refunds. They like to hype themselves up as knowing more than the rest of the industry, while not actually having the evidence of it in their own releases. Overall, Bulkhead suffers from weak leadership, instability, and a culture of fear. I strongly recommend avoiding this company.

> I don't mind the occasional pivot, I'd argue that's necessary in this industry - but plenty doors get built that lead nowhere, taking risks they're inexperienced to make with little or negative payoff. > Teams can expect to stagnate for weeks at a time due to this: it becomes tiresome for the folks with expertise unutilised & I've seen plenty juniors struggle to get in a rhythm that suits the team. > Lack of L&D Initiatives & materials don't help - none exist because no wider development process or framework has stuck, likely due to the cycle of: Make a solid plan to release, get 3 weeks into the milestone, change structure, different goals, rinse, repeat. Again - it happens, but you're in trouble when the execution is consistently poor.