CRUNCH IN THE INDUSTRY
Crunch – or working overtime for extended periods to get development on a game finished – is something that’s, sadly, always existed in our industry, but over the last few years, it’s really come into the limelight. And sadly, reports of horrible crunch and developers being overworked have arisen out of various big studios of late. From Rockstar with Red Dead Redemption 2, to BioWare with Anthem, to Epic Games with the ongoing success of Fortnite, to NetherRealm Studios with Mortal Kombat 11, to Treyarch with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, stories of borderline inhuman crunch have popped up with alarming frequency. On the other side of the spectrum, there have been a few notable instances of developers refusing to overwork their employees, such as Nintendo with Animal Crossing: New Horizons and how they delayed it, and Respawn Entertainment with Apex Legends and how they’re not going to match the output of something like Fortnite. Let’s hope we see more such stories in the future.
