Videogames have come a long way in their short life. Games that were comprised of just a few pixels bouncing around on a screen have turned into a marvel of cinematic wonder and complete player interactivity. However, as game technology and expectations from players grow, so does the amount of manpower and creative talent from unique individuals that is required to be poured into these projects to make them a success.
With the demand of quality in games growing higher and higher, developers must put in long, painstaking hours into overtime that can last for weeks and even months to meet deadlines. The problems that arise, from what is coined as “crunch” culture in the game industry, is just now being brought to light in the past year, but many people are still very unaware of the detrimental effects this has on many seasoned and upcoming game developers in the industry.
What is “Crunch” Culture?
In this current age of the game industry, it’s not uncommon for game developers to find themselves in a season of “crunch” time leading up to the release of a AAA title. What is this “crunch” time you may ask? Well it’s a term that originated from the game industry, and it’s basically a set period of time in which employees have to work extensive overtime hours, often times sacrificing personal and social lives and even subjecting themselves to health issues in order to finish a project before shipping deadlines. This can be caused by poor planning or by pursuing overly ambitious titles.
This is an issue that has existed in the game industry for a while under the radar. However, instances of this “crunch” culture are coming more to light in recent titles, such a Fortnite, Anthem, Red Dead Redemption 2, and even the acclaimed Mortal Kombat 11. Over the years, more game studios have adopted this “crunch” culture into their business models so they can deliver over-the-top games for eager players all at the expense of their employees.
So, what effects does this crunch culture have on game developers?
Unpaid Overtime
Let’s get the obvious problem out in the open. During crunch time, employees, whether they’ve been a full-time employee for years or are just contractors, are not paid at all for their overtime work.
With such high expectations for quality for games nowadays, studios are pressured to create a lot of quality and content in a short window of time. Even once the game is shipped, employees still have to work tirelessly with bug fixing and new DLC. Also, if they have an online multiplayer component in the game they’ll be working their butts off making sure everything works and to provide constant updates to make the game fresh and last for years until the next title comes out.
Take Fortnite, for example. This battle royale goliath has been around for a couple years now and is a huge success, but developers don’t get a chance to bask in their creation like many players do. Many employees at Epic work, on average, 70 hours a week just to keep up with the workload that Fortnite produces and others pull 100 hour weeks all without pay.
Epic isn’t the only company to suffer through this either. There have been reports that employees of companies like Rocksteady Games and EA, who put out major titles such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and Anthem have worked 80-100 hour weeks leading up to their game’s release date.
Health Issues
Lack of sleep, poor eating habits, overindulging in caffeinated drinks, stress, anxiety. All of these things and more are what developers suffer through daily during crunch time. When you’re pressured to meet deadlines and you have to put in twice the amount of hours of work everyday to make sure your project ships with a golden star of approval on the package, any hopes of maintaining healthy habits are thrown out the window.
With such a busy schedule and their own personal lives to worry about, devs are lucky to get 4 hours of sleep per night before they have to get back on the work grind again. They have to get hopped up on caffeine almost hourly, due to their lack of sleep and rest. They have to order take out regularly because they have no time to prep or cook meals. And, they have an overwhelming amount of stress put on them to complete 3 months worth of work in just a few weeks. Not to mention, all the increasing risks of mental health issues in employees, such as depression, heart issues, stroke, insomnia, anxiety attacks, and more from their lack of a healthy, normal lifestyle.
The negative health effects of this crunch culture can be seen as early as 2004 where spouses of developers would write to EA complaining about the damages overworking had on their husbands. Employees would work 85 hour long weeks feeling the strain of work weigh them down with no additional PTO or sick days. When developers are staring at a computer screen 12-15 hours a day with barely any time off they begin to lose focus and suffer from fatigue and blinding headaches that last for days. Others get sick and had to leave the office because they were physically incapable to do the work anymore.
If this is what game developers had to suffer through 15 years ago, you can bet that it’s only gotten worse over the years.
Risk of Job Loss
Why do people indulge in this crunch time if there are so many negative effects that come along with it? Why don’t they just speak out and refuse to work such long hours? For a lot of people, that just simply isn’t an option.
While companies claim that overtime hours are not mandatory, there’s an unspoken expectation that all employees will “put in their fair share.” Employees are afraid that if they don’t work overtime, they’ll lose their job in an industry they love to work in. This is especially true for contractors.
Most contractors are just dying to get their foot in the door in the game industry, because it’s such a competitive field. They feel like they have to put in twice the amount of work and stand out from everyone else in hopes that they will get hired full time, fulfilling their dream of making games for a living. They know they can be replaced and what will happen if they don’t give 200%.
Epic’s Fortnite requires a ton of work to keep it afloat and the company relies on a lot of workers, especially contractors, involved in crunch time for the job. At one point, there was a deadline that needed to be met for Fortnite, but a group of contractors refused to work on the weekends because they were already putting in a ton of hours throughout the week. The deadline was missed and all those contractors were fired because they failed to meet the company’s standards.
Companies realize how many people care about their jobs and take advantage of this fact by intentionally raising employees contracts over their heads threatening to replace them and making it seem that they’re employee’s entire lives are in the palm of their hands. One of the worst examples of this can be found in the studio Netherrealm, producers of popular games like Injustice 2 and Mortal Kombat 11.
The work environment in this studio is extremely toxic. There have been several accounts of higher ups yelling at contractors threatening to fire them on the spot if they don’t contribute in crunch time. Other times they tease to contractors the idea of working full-time at the studio or the opportunity for a promotion or pay raise to full-time employees who have been there for years, so they’ll work harder on their projects.
It’s honestly sickening and morally corrupt, but of course no company will admit to such treason and act like their first priority is with their staff and not their product.
Lack of a Personal Life
With an extensive workload to worry about, many employees are lacking in the personal/social life department. During crunch time, many people spend most of their days in an office to meet deadlines. Some even opt into sleeping at the office for weeks at a time on a couch or inflatable mattress in their cubicle to deal with the 12-16 hour long days.
If you’re young and one of your main focuses in your life is your career, long work hours and no social life might not seem so bad to you. Afterall, it seems like a small price to pay when you are pursuing your career goals and you get to make amazing games for a living. However, not many people in the industry have the luxury that a young, ambitious game developer in their early 20’s might have.
Imagine if you work in the game industry, but you have a spouse, a kid, a family waiting for you to come home, but you never show because your department is pulling all nighters to meet impending deadlines that you can’t afford to miss. What you may think will only be a couple days max, turns into weeks, maybe even months when you’re barely home. All of sudden, you miss out on important life milestones.
You can’t make it to your 10 year anniversary dinner with your husband/wife. You miss your child’s first steps. You stop having any time at all to spend with your family because you’re so busy providing for them financially that life just passes you by.
Out of all the problems that comes from crunch time, this has to be one of the worst. People can deal with lack of sleep, or cope with health issues because they know that while it will suck in the short term, they’ll be able to make up for it later on and reverse the effects of their busy work schedule. However, they can’t make up for the important things in life, such as their baby’s first words their daughter’s first dance recital. Those moments are just gone and no amount of money or passion for a game can make up for that.
Crunch is most likely always going to exist in the game industry. There’s always going to be that final stretch where all hands are on deck and employees are going to be working their asses off to make sure the game they worked on for years ships out well. If you’re working in the industry, crunch time is just something that comes with the trade.
However, the extreme and detrimental effects of crunch time is too much to put on employees. Game companies desperately need to cut down on a lot of the demands required from staff to develop a healthy work environment and a healthy life overall. What are your thoughts on crunch culture? Comment below and make sure to share this post! I look forward to hearing from you!
Dean Willms
Gamer. Designer. Friend.
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