Gotta be so weird at EA trying to figure things out. BioWare over here with beloved IP and a huge devoted fanbase and they’re struggling to keep their head above water, and here this guy with his AA co-op games waltzes in and eats their lunch.
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Yeah think there’s a different culture in the US - don’t a lot of companies only offer 2 weeks holiday?
In the UK it’s a minimum of 5.6 weeks (basically 4 weeks plus bank holidays), and in many tech jobs you get 5 or 6 weeks instead of the 4.
The EU I think is even higher.
We do out-of-hours support during go lives, but it’s well paid and rest times are strictly enforced - we’ll fix critical issues during a go live but then triage, in general I’ve found only a late night or two are needed for both my team and for friends in other companies (both big and small).
Think it’s possibly two-fold - the British “don’t make a fuss” so clients accept you can’t work 48 hours straight, and that QA and testing have become very important here in recent years to try and avoid these issues
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This is grossly inaccurate. Japan, legally, has greater protections for employees but that doesn’t change the fact that Square, Sega, Sony, and plenty of other Japanese companies have, in fact, laid off plenty of devs over the last five years alone. Furthermore, as someone who’s actually been to Japan, worked with Japanese counterparts, and have plenty of friends in the workforce over there: you’re talking about a country where the work/life balance is massively skewed. From mandatory after-hours drunken pub sessions, to sleeping under their desks because of work demands, I don’t think there’s any argument that holds water to imply “Japanese grunt developers” have it easy or are making bank.
Let’s leave the ethnocentrism at the door please.
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https://x.com/wario64/status/1900228801537175629?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ
More exciting sequel announcement.
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Yes but really only new people or people who aren’t worth much to a company. Once you near middle age or mid 30s and you work hard enough to be an integral part of a team you get 4-6 weeks holiday. It is like anything else - if you have/bring value - you get paid money and time off. If you are expendable - you get bare minimums.
Unlike the UK we don’t have many 20 year old corporates with more than a couple of weeks off. I used to get so jealous being in a foreign country and running into young Europeans who could stay in Central America for weeks at a time.
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I see. A bit disappointing to see him going this way too, it’s not necessary.
Oh hell yeah. The first one had no right being so much fun, but it sure was. That reminds me of having to reinstall it, there was some free content a while back iirc.
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https://x.com/wario64/status/1900307599666352336?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ
https://x.com/wario64/status/1900306500863557782?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ
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The AKIRA drift meme strikes again.
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This by Blooher too?
New developer. You can say this is their main debut.
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Assassin’s Creed Shadows done, time to get to writing… then editing, then narrating, then video editing. Goes live on the 18th!
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I never understood the hate of crunch. Anyone who’s worked in corporate does crunch. I have 3 work from home jobs in tech and make a lot of money because of this so when I hear that kind of stuff I don’t feel bad. If u don’t like the work culture get another job
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Why? If they’re partnering with any of the bigger media sites they shoukd jist gone with IGN.
You work three jobs at once?
I’m sorry but in what world is being stuck in an office for days on end even remotely the same as working from home?
Crunch also isn’t just a corporate job issue, it exist in every type of job that exist and all jobs have different demands. With most often those jobs demanding more while deciding you don’t deserve to be fairly compensated for your work because it’s considered unskilled work.
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There’s a huge difference between say me putting in some late nights ahead of / during a go live at double rate while working from home, in a senior well-paid role, and what a lot of companies particularly in game development do which is what I’d call true “crunch”.
It’s usually the less senior staff pressured to do it, at single rate or no overtime pay at all (given it’s often suggested as “voluntary” but made clear if you’re ambitious or want some semblance of job security you’ll do it), usually in office and pushed to their limits.
They take advantage of junior and early-career developers (and other roles) with their dreams of working in game development - knowing there’s 20 other people desperate to work in the industry if they refuse due to the “games are fun so making them must be too” lie.
In reality, any coding can be fun if you’ve got some autonomy and challenge, and making games can be if you’re doing it for yourself or a decent employer - but the lie is too often used to exploit young developers then throw them out when there’s a quiet period before the next game.
So no, true “crunch” is never acceptable and exploitation is one of the worst aspects of the game industry - they should plan better and if some overtime is needed pay the team well for it and make sure they’re getting enough rest, family / friends time still and that they take enough leave.
It’s really not difficult - the US model of “you’re screwed because you’re dependent on us for your health insurance” plus “I’m going to make it, so I have to work 100 hour weeks for little hourly pay and step on everyone else” is broken enough, but in gaming some studios are even worse…
(And yes I worked 100 hour weeks before, partially as I felt I needed to and partly due to my brain - but despite being well compensated (UK) in the years since I’ve realised many of the issues could have waited and while I did write some elegant code in that time I also wrote some really bad code too or made silly mistakes due to exhaustion!)
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Not to a pile on you but to give you a different perspective. Software is different.
There’s a ton of jobs where things pick up and then things get dead and It balances itself out. And sometimes the pay structure follows that. So you end up looking forward to either because sometimes you want more work and more money and then sometimes you need a break. And more money and then sometimes you need a break.
Software is a bit different because you have a fevered pitch to hit every Sprint and then you’ll have milestones that require crunches. You get paid the same regardless and when you’re done with your 12 to 16 hour days for weeks on end you come in on the next Monday going at the same pace you went for the rest of the year which isn’t really a reprieve from that crunch period.
I think there’s a way to do it fairly. I don’t want to bore anyone with my experiences but I think there are some industries where crunch is actually awesome because it’s bounced out with ultra slow periods which give you time to recuperate. And throughout you’re getting well compensated so you’re happy to do more work.
The current software industry isn’t like that.
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