Systemic issues with AAA development in the video games industry have come to the surface with greater force than ever before in recent times. From the likes or Riot Games and BioWare to others like Rockstar and Epic Games, issues with the internal workings of several studios have come to light, and said surfacing of issues has blessedly empowered other members of the industry to speak out about their own experiences.
Recently, several former employees and contractors who worked with NetherRealm Studios on several projects, including Mortal Kombat and Injustice, have taken to Twitter to speak about the issues at the studio, and their accounts paint a bleak picture, from crunch to harassment to poor working conditions.
James Longstreet, former programmer at NetherRealm Studios, spoke about his work on Mortal Kombat 9, where he described overbearing crunch conditions, which saw crunch not as something voluntary that employees would volunteer for, but something that was mandatory. “This was not a wink-wink-nudge-nudge ‘passionate hardworking’ thing,” he wrote. “This was a mandate.”
Longstreet says that the Mortal Kombat team sees crunch as necessary, and as something that has always worked for them in the past, in light of which they see it as “clearly the right thing to do”. He also describes poor working conditions for contractors, saying the studio hires “as many contractors and interns as they can, pay them s**t (much less than I started at 12 years ago), and work them to death”.
Beck Hallstedt, a contractor concept artist who worked on Injustice 2, also recounts her own experiences during the five months she spent working at the studio, calling their practices “predatory and abusive”. She describes poor infrastructural issues and a culture of harassment, such as contractors being stuffed into small workspaces with not enough room to work, female contractors being paid less than the usual rates, female employees not being allowed into certain meetings, contractors getting treated poorly and blamed for several issues by the higher-up employees, and them not getting credited with the nature of the work they are doing.
Her accounts are backed up by former QA analyst Rebecca Rothschild, who says she can “confirm everything” described by Hallstedt, before saying there are “lots of amazing people work at NRS [NetherRealm Studios], but there are serious, systemic issues that need to be addressed.”
You can read the aforementioned accounts in the tweets below. One can only hope that with such issues having come to light, NetherRealm Studios will be forced to take action and get to work on fixing these internal issues, which are clearly not sustainable or healthy in any way. Accounts don’t mention whether similar issues have persisted with the development of their most recent project, Mortal Kombat 11, but in the absence of evidence to the contrary, in light of what’s surfaced, it would be hard to assume that anything has changed- not until change is forced, at the very least.
on MK9 crunch officially began after new years day 2011. of course, we did a bit of pre-crunch before that, just to make sure we were in a good spot for crunch. this was on schedule documents. this was not a wink-wink-nudge-nudge "passionate hardworking" thing, this was mandate.
— Jiminy Snackmouth (@jlongstreet) April 23, 2019
i took one day off between jan 1 and the day the day1 patch was approved. it was my birthday, and it was on a sunday, so it was ok if i was just on call. i was allowed to go to a friends' wedding (on call of course) on a saturday night, after working an 8 hour shift first
— Jiminy Snackmouth (@jlongstreet) April 23, 2019
those were the only two days i didn't work from at least 10 am to at least midnight. we were all doing this. i mean, except the bosses, of course, who would leave after dinner
— Jiminy Snackmouth (@jlongstreet) April 23, 2019
from what i've heard the crunch cycle has gotten worse since i've left. a friend i talked to in september said they were crunching already. they hire as many contractors and interns as they can, pay them shit (much less than I started at 12 years ago) and work them to death
— Jiminy Snackmouth (@jlongstreet) April 23, 2019
the MK team's stance is that crunch works, and MK games are always profitable, so it's clearly the right thing to do. it's wrong — crunch doesn't work, the workers don't see the profit (bonuses at WB games are capped to a small percentage of salary), and it ruins lives
— Jiminy Snackmouth (@jlongstreet) April 23, 2019
this might get my ass blacklisted but i want to talk about the ridiculous amount of experiences i had/saw at netherrealm for the short FIVE MONTHS that i was there.
NRS needs to be exposed for predatory and abusive behaviors in the same ways that riot, epic, and telltale have. https://t.co/fX4eJalL51
— bonka honkstedt (@beccahallstedt) April 24, 2019
NRS is in a long building with 3 sets of bathrooms. they turned the woman's bathroom closest to contractors into a "unisex bathroom" b/c there are so few women. men would urinate with the stall door open while women were in there. fem coworkers told me not to bother to complain.
— bonka honkstedt (@beccahallstedt) April 24, 2019
i sat with all the other contract artists in a back room that was stuffed with workstations so they could fit as many temp people as possible.
it was a daily occurrence to hear FT people talk about how many contractors were cramped into that room during crunch cycle.
— bonka honkstedt (@beccahallstedt) April 24, 2019
i and most other contractors, some of the most talented junior-level workers that games have to offer, worked at $12/hour to work on a AAA game
unless you were a woman like me, we got $11/hour
— bonka honkstedt (@beccahallstedt) April 24, 2019
i know women that were not included in scrum meetings because they were "distracting" for the guys
— bonka honkstedt (@beccahallstedt) April 24, 2019
when things go wrong, they blame & yell at & abuse contractors. there was a major leak that resulted in a higher-up bringing all contractors into a room and having a SCREAMfest at them & threatening all of them collectively
found out later the leak didn't come from a contractor.
— bonka honkstedt (@beccahallstedt) April 24, 2019
they don't even call you an associate artist
they kept calling me an intern, the entire time i was there, even though i was designing props for literally harley quinn and batman
— bonka honkstedt (@beccahallstedt) April 24, 2019
I worked as a contractor at NRS and can confirm everything @beckhallstedt has laid out here. Lots of amazing people work at NRS, but there are serious, systemic issues that need to be addressed. https://t.co/Q7XPDgzcJ2
— Rebecca Rothschild (@RBonksR) April 25, 2019
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