10 Times Studios Pushed Their Employees Too Hard
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VOICE OVER: Riccardo Tucci
WRITTEN BY: Caitlin Johnson
We're not saying you can't enjoy any of these games, but exploitation like this shouldn't be ignored. For this video, we're looking at times video game studios mistreated their own developers. Our list includes BioWare “Mass Effect: Andromeda” (2017), NetherRealm “Mortal Kombat 11” (2019), Epic Games “Fortnite Battle Royale” (2017), Rockstar Games “Red Dead Redemption 2” (2018) and more!
Script written by Caitlin Johnson
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at 10 times studios pushed their employees too hard. The games industry takes no prisoners.
For this video, we’re looking at times video game studios mistreated their own developers. We’re not saying you can’t enjoy any of these games, but that exploitation shouldn’t be ignored.
One of the first indictments of toxic work practices in the video game industry came in 2004, when Erin Hoffman, the wife of an EA developer and also a game designer herself, posted an anonymous open letter. The letter became known as the “EA Spouse Letter” and detailed the 12-hour workdays expected of EA developers. Unlike modern crunch, which is technically “voluntary” despite being expected, this was mandatory crunch, which increased to thirteen-hour days seven days a week before the game was released. An investigation into the industry was carried out and lawsuits were brought against EA for not paying overtime, which cost the company millions of dollars to settle.
Troubled from the beginning, one of “Andromeda’s” first big problems was that its development was handed over to BioWare Montreal instead of BioWare Edmonton, a far more inexperienced studio that, until that point, had just supported what Edmonton was doing. Despite being in development for years, most of “Andromeda” was cobbled together in 18 months. It suffered from going through numerous project leads as people kept leaving. To make matters even worse, it was built on the Frostbite engine, which was never intended for use with third-person RPGs; every single asset, menu, and developer tool had to be built totally from scratch. In the end, the game was widely panned and the studio was shut down.
Video games can be extremely violent – this is the reason they’ve stirred up so much controversy over the few short decades they’ve existed. But one series, in particular, is the goriest of all: “Mortal Kombat”. During development of “Mortal Kombat 11”, it was reported by Kotaku that one NetherRealm developer had been diagnosed with PTSD after working on the game’s incredibly violent animations. This was because of the intense research process that goes into creating animations like this, which involves watching actual violent scenes and then recreating them virtually. Allegedly, the developer ended up going to therapy because of the nightmares the cinematics fuelled.
You might wonder why development of “Mass Effect” was taken out of BioWare Montreal’s hands – that reason is “Anthem”, a game that somehow managed to fare even worse than “Andromeda”. “Anthem” was also plagued by project leads who clearly didn’t know what they wanted it to be thanks to the departure of designer Casey Hudson, who came up with the idea for the game. BioWare was also seemingly under threat of closure from EA if they didn’t deliver. Crunch was rife at the end of “Anthem’s” development and the game was still a total mess. It was an always-online, MMO-lite trying to be another “Destiny”, with bugs so severe they bricked entire PS4s.
The CEO of Activision-Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, has long been named one of the most overpaid CEOs in the world, writing himself paychecks for tens of millions of dollars each year. At the same time, the company has laid off huge numbers of staff when big-budget games apparently weren’t as lucrative as executives and investors wanted them to be. Of the developers who remain, allegedly many of them are so underpaid they’ve had to skip meals, despite working long hours at full-time jobs. In 2020, staff rebelled by sharing their salaries in an anonymous spreadsheet, in the hope of forcing executives to slash their own wages and pay employees what they deserve for actually making the blockbuster games.
When “The Walking Dead” game became a smash hit in 2012, Telltale Games doubled down and began producing a seemingly endless number of licensed games with the same art style, engine, and game mechanics. Outsiders began to grow more and more skeptical of whether Telltale could keep up the pace, quickly wrangling itself around 300 employees; in September 2018 it became clear that they couldn’t. With no notice, severance, and little explanation, Telltale laid off over 90% of its workforce. It came out that after “The Walking Dead”, only “The Wolf Among Us” and “Minecraft” had turned a profit, with developers stuck in an endless state of crunch to complete new episodes all the while. A class-action lawsuit was even brought against Telltale for the mistreatment of employees.
Nobody knew in 2017 that “Fortnite” and its free-to-play battle royale mode was going to become the biggest video game in the world, but it did, nonetheless. The surprise success meant Epic Games higher-ups weren’t willing to let Fortnite sleep, and they allegedly brought out a mandate for non-stop content updates adding flashy skins, new maps, and more microtransactions. Developers who talked to Polygon claimed that they were forced into overtime because they were so scared of what would happen if they refused. They were working upward of 70 hours a week to keep the game relevant - like there was ever any danger of “Fortnite” slipping into obscurity.
In 2010, an open letter to Rockstar in the same tradition as the EA spouse letter was released to draw attention to the alleged long hours and toxic work culture during the development of “Red Dead Redemption”. Almost a decade later and little had changed. After a throwaway comment from studio head and lead writer Dan Houser that employees had been working “100-hour-weeks” on “Red Dead 2”, all eyes were on Rockstar to explain themselves. Houser tried to clarify he meant only the writing team, but plenty of developers and QA testers spoke out and said Rockstar had a culture of mandatory crunch and overtime. As of 2020, it looks like things might finally be improving at the industry’s most adored studio, however.
One of the most celebrated game developers of all time, Naughty Dog has a reputation for perfection – but that perfection comes at a greater and greater cost with every release. Straight after a brutal period of crunch to make “Uncharted: The Lost Legacy”, it was all-hands-on-deck for “The Last of Us Part II”, which had a troubled development, to say the least. Burnout and staff turnover were allegedly so high at the studio the game became incredibly difficult to finish, leading to delays and even hospitalization. And rumors circulated prior to release that some Naughty Dog developers wanted the game to fail so that the company would see crunch is not the way to go.
The most anticipated game of 2020, there was a lot of attention on “Cyberpunk 2077” – but it became clear that CDPR’s promise that developers wouldn’t crunch had fallen through. Rampant crunch didn’t help get the game out, however, as it was delayed time and time again. When it did release, it was clear that the game’s direction was lacking, to say the least; “Cyberpunk” was poorly optimized for low-end hardware, absolutely full of bugs, and missing key features any open-world game of this scale desperately needs. Developers angry at the game’s messy launch even confronted studio bosses about their lack of vision and direction, asking whether they were hypocrites to “make a game about corporate exploitation” while exploiting their staff.
10 Times Studios Pushed Their Employees Too Hard
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at 10 times studios pushed their employees too hard. The games industry takes no prisoners.
For this video, we’re looking at times video game studios mistreated their own developers. We’re not saying you can’t enjoy any of these games, but that exploitation shouldn’t be ignored.
The EA Spouse Letter
One of the first indictments of toxic work practices in the video game industry came in 2004, when Erin Hoffman, the wife of an EA developer and also a game designer herself, posted an anonymous open letter. The letter became known as the “EA Spouse Letter” and detailed the 12-hour workdays expected of EA developers. Unlike modern crunch, which is technically “voluntary” despite being expected, this was mandatory crunch, which increased to thirteen-hour days seven days a week before the game was released. An investigation into the industry was carried out and lawsuits were brought against EA for not paying overtime, which cost the company millions of dollars to settle.
BioWare
“Mass Effect: Andromeda” (2017)
Troubled from the beginning, one of “Andromeda’s” first big problems was that its development was handed over to BioWare Montreal instead of BioWare Edmonton, a far more inexperienced studio that, until that point, had just supported what Edmonton was doing. Despite being in development for years, most of “Andromeda” was cobbled together in 18 months. It suffered from going through numerous project leads as people kept leaving. To make matters even worse, it was built on the Frostbite engine, which was never intended for use with third-person RPGs; every single asset, menu, and developer tool had to be built totally from scratch. In the end, the game was widely panned and the studio was shut down.
NetherRealm
“Mortal Kombat 11” (2019)
Video games can be extremely violent – this is the reason they’ve stirred up so much controversy over the few short decades they’ve existed. But one series, in particular, is the goriest of all: “Mortal Kombat”. During development of “Mortal Kombat 11”, it was reported by Kotaku that one NetherRealm developer had been diagnosed with PTSD after working on the game’s incredibly violent animations. This was because of the intense research process that goes into creating animations like this, which involves watching actual violent scenes and then recreating them virtually. Allegedly, the developer ended up going to therapy because of the nightmares the cinematics fuelled.
BioWare Again
“Anthem” (2019)
You might wonder why development of “Mass Effect” was taken out of BioWare Montreal’s hands – that reason is “Anthem”, a game that somehow managed to fare even worse than “Andromeda”. “Anthem” was also plagued by project leads who clearly didn’t know what they wanted it to be thanks to the departure of designer Casey Hudson, who came up with the idea for the game. BioWare was also seemingly under threat of closure from EA if they didn’t deliver. Crunch was rife at the end of “Anthem’s” development and the game was still a total mess. It was an always-online, MMO-lite trying to be another “Destiny”, with bugs so severe they bricked entire PS4s.
Activision
The CEO of Activision-Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, has long been named one of the most overpaid CEOs in the world, writing himself paychecks for tens of millions of dollars each year. At the same time, the company has laid off huge numbers of staff when big-budget games apparently weren’t as lucrative as executives and investors wanted them to be. Of the developers who remain, allegedly many of them are so underpaid they’ve had to skip meals, despite working long hours at full-time jobs. In 2020, staff rebelled by sharing their salaries in an anonymous spreadsheet, in the hope of forcing executives to slash their own wages and pay employees what they deserve for actually making the blockbuster games.
Telltale Games
When “The Walking Dead” game became a smash hit in 2012, Telltale Games doubled down and began producing a seemingly endless number of licensed games with the same art style, engine, and game mechanics. Outsiders began to grow more and more skeptical of whether Telltale could keep up the pace, quickly wrangling itself around 300 employees; in September 2018 it became clear that they couldn’t. With no notice, severance, and little explanation, Telltale laid off over 90% of its workforce. It came out that after “The Walking Dead”, only “The Wolf Among Us” and “Minecraft” had turned a profit, with developers stuck in an endless state of crunch to complete new episodes all the while. A class-action lawsuit was even brought against Telltale for the mistreatment of employees.
Epic Games
“Fortnite Battle Royale” (2017)
Nobody knew in 2017 that “Fortnite” and its free-to-play battle royale mode was going to become the biggest video game in the world, but it did, nonetheless. The surprise success meant Epic Games higher-ups weren’t willing to let Fortnite sleep, and they allegedly brought out a mandate for non-stop content updates adding flashy skins, new maps, and more microtransactions. Developers who talked to Polygon claimed that they were forced into overtime because they were so scared of what would happen if they refused. They were working upward of 70 hours a week to keep the game relevant - like there was ever any danger of “Fortnite” slipping into obscurity.
Rockstar Games
“Red Dead Redemption 2” (2018)
In 2010, an open letter to Rockstar in the same tradition as the EA spouse letter was released to draw attention to the alleged long hours and toxic work culture during the development of “Red Dead Redemption”. Almost a decade later and little had changed. After a throwaway comment from studio head and lead writer Dan Houser that employees had been working “100-hour-weeks” on “Red Dead 2”, all eyes were on Rockstar to explain themselves. Houser tried to clarify he meant only the writing team, but plenty of developers and QA testers spoke out and said Rockstar had a culture of mandatory crunch and overtime. As of 2020, it looks like things might finally be improving at the industry’s most adored studio, however.
Naughty Dog
“The Last of Us Part II” (2020)
One of the most celebrated game developers of all time, Naughty Dog has a reputation for perfection – but that perfection comes at a greater and greater cost with every release. Straight after a brutal period of crunch to make “Uncharted: The Lost Legacy”, it was all-hands-on-deck for “The Last of Us Part II”, which had a troubled development, to say the least. Burnout and staff turnover were allegedly so high at the studio the game became incredibly difficult to finish, leading to delays and even hospitalization. And rumors circulated prior to release that some Naughty Dog developers wanted the game to fail so that the company would see crunch is not the way to go.
CD Projekt Red
“Cyberpunk 2077” (2020)
The most anticipated game of 2020, there was a lot of attention on “Cyberpunk 2077” – but it became clear that CDPR’s promise that developers wouldn’t crunch had fallen through. Rampant crunch didn’t help get the game out, however, as it was delayed time and time again. When it did release, it was clear that the game’s direction was lacking, to say the least; “Cyberpunk” was poorly optimized for low-end hardware, absolutely full of bugs, and missing key features any open-world game of this scale desperately needs. Developers angry at the game’s messy launch even confronted studio bosses about their lack of vision and direction, asking whether they were hypocrites to “make a game about corporate exploitation” while exploiting their staff.
