Crytek just can’t seem to catch a break.
The Ryse: Son of Rome developer, having fought an uphill battle to convince gamers that their game is indeed not just a series of QTEs, is now in trouble over a tweet made regarding dinners served to its crunching team. For those unaware, “crunch time” is a period of development that essentially amounts to unlimited overtime. It’s also known as the “no rest till its done” phase and is a sign of poor product managing whenever excessive crunch is needed.
Sadly, that seems to be the case with Ryse: Son of Rome, and Crytek did no favours for itself by seemingly touting the fact on Twitter.
By the time #Ryse ships for #XboxOne, we will have served the crunching team more than 11,500 dinners throughout development. #RyseFacts
— Ryse: Son of Rome (@RyseGame) October 15, 2013
Since then, Twitter has been abuzz with sarcastic tweets about the #RyseFacts, some which you can check out below.
Fight as a Soldier, crunch like a beggard #Rysefacts
— Mr.Giallo (@MrGiallo) October 16, 2013
As a game developer, I find it utterly disgusting that any studio could take pride in having to crunch. Very sad. #RyseFacts
— Darrell Blake (@DarrellBlake) October 16, 2013
#RyseFacts Crunch for yourself, work for someone else. Know your value and act accordingly. You are worth more than a plate of spaghetti.
— Dustin Hansen (@DustHansen) October 16, 2013
How will Crytek deal with this latest PR snafu, which seemed to be in innocent fun but has since turned sour? We’ll find out as the story develops. Ryse: Son of Rome is scheduled to launch for Xbox One on November 22nd.