If they don't like their situation they can move on, right? So why should you take time out of your day to sympathize with game developers? After all, they're adults. You work hard at your job, and you don't always get to go home right when the clock strikes five, either. In late 2008, Mike Capps, president of Epic Games (developers of Gears of War 3 and Bulletstorm) made controversial comments about crunch on an industry panel, going so far as to say that Epic wouldn't hire prospective employees unless they were willing to work upwards of 60 hours per week. It's a sense that if you're not working overtime, you're not part of the team. This "culture of fear" isn't something overt, but rather is a subversive, almost jock-like attitude found throughout the industry. There is definitely a culture of fear that's cultivated in this industry." "My clients' husbands and boyfriends feel totally replaceable, and therefore are worried that if they don't perform, they'll lose their jobs. "I've heard from my clients that the competition for jobs is fierce," said Dr. Shoshana Bennett, a psychologist who practices in the San Francisco Bay Area. Straley was very clear that there are many reasons why a worker might stay after hours, but it was the "cultural peer pressure" comment that was echoed when we spoke with Dr. "Is it the company's management, or is it the individual? How much is it a 'cultural peer pressure'-the unspoken peer pressure that propels someone to stay longer just to hang out with their friends, or to avoid the feeling of guilt they place on themselves for leaving early?" Advertisement "To me, sometimes it's not even a deadline that propels someone to stay late or come in on the weekends," said Bruce Straley, lead designer on Uncharted 2. Over time it has become part of the corporate culture of making video games.
The letter alleged, among other things, that employees were being moved to another crunch just as the previous crunch was ending. "When the team rallies behind the idea of an awesome new boss battle that wasn't on the original schedule, and goes the extra mile to make it super rad, that's not the same thing as forcing employees to stay all weekend," said Michael Wilford, CEO of Twisted Pixel games, the studio behind the Xbox Live Arcade titles 'Splosion Man and Comic Jumper.ĮA was one of the first companies to be put in the spotlight for quality of life concerns after the infamous EA_spouse essay gained widespread exposure in 2004. A recent poll of over 350 industry professionals taken by developer-focused website Develop, showed that 98 percent of those polled received no compensation for their overtime work.Ĭrunch isn't a tool used exclusively for cost saving measures. The vast majority of employees working in the development of video games are salaried employees and do not receive overtime for additional hours spent at the office. This is one of the principle factors perpetuating the use of crunch by management.
CRUNCH MEANING GAME INDUSTRY FULL
Less time spent on development means less time employing a full team of artists, programmers, designers, testers etc. Studios push their employees harder to finish projects faster. No kid should ever have to wonder if Santa Claus is cracking the whip too hard on his elves to make the Christmas Eve shipping deadline, but despite widespread outrage over revelations from ex-employees describing poor conditions, the status quo remains largely unchanged and unchallenged. In an industry that is steadfastly focused on fun, it seems counter-intuitive that video gamers should be the ones who have to worry about the sagging quality of life of those who make the games. They were welcomed to the end of a particularly long crunch period by pink slips rather than profit sharing and bonuses. In some cases it's nearly dehumanizing: the closure of All Points Bulletin developer Real Time Worlds in September of last year left more than 185 employees out of a job.
This practice has earned a markedly less innocuous name than "crunch time." It's called "the death march." Extended periods of crunch can last up to a year, with sustained 60-hour weeks. The worst involve up to 85-hour work weeks-12 hours a day, seven days a week-which is more than double the century-old 40 hour per week standard. Horror stories are constantly surfacing about the lengths game developers sometimes have to go in order to ship a game on time.
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