Crunch Crashed the Video Game Industry | Crunch Time | Part 1

There’s been a lot of talk lately in the video game industry about “crunch,” or a period of time where employees have to hustle in order to meet strict deadlines.

A little bit of crunch from time to time is completely normal in any business. Deadlines are set, projects are adjusted, and every now and then, there just aren’t enough hours in a work week to wrap everything up on time, leading to working lunches or a bit of overtime to make ends meet. These things happen. But when “crunch” becomes the status quo of a typical work schedule, the consequences for both companies and their teammates can be dire.

Unless you’re a self-proclaimed nerd (such as myself), you probably haven’t heard about this plague sweeping through game studio after game studio, but the disease has been running rampant:

• How Fortnite’s success led to months of intense crunch at Epic Games.
• ‘Anthem’ is proof that crunch can’t save AAA games.
• Telltale co-founder says crunch was necessary to keep studio afloat.
• Why are game studios run like sweat shops? The human toll of ‘crunch time.’
• Blizzard was built on crunch, co-founder says, but it’s ‘not sustainable.’

And these are just a handful of the headlines floating around the web.

A Decades-Long Problem

Truth be told, “crunch” isn’t new to the video game industry. According to a report by Business Insider, this “decades-long problem in video game development first became public nearly 15 years ago,” but has somehow gone largely unacknowledged by industry executives.

Why?

Because despite crunch culture, major game studios were still meeting strenuous deadlines and raking in billions of dollars year after year.

It wasn’t until massively hyped game titles, such as this year’s Anthem by BioWare, completely failed to deliver that the fight against crunch culture found renewed purpose.

A Workplace Epidemic

Today, all kinds of stories from major labels, like Fornite’s Epic Games, Red Dead Redemption 2’s Rockstar Games and the now defunct maker behind various episodic storytelling adventures, Telltale, have emerged, professing the heavy workloads developers have endured to reach their deadlines.

Although the video game industry appears to be reaching a pivotal turning point where management is finally recognizing the hectic demands they place on their employees and vowing to amend them, the recent press surrounding crunch culture sheds some light on an even larger-reaching issue:

Crunch isn’t just reserved for video game developers. It’s found its way into other industries, as well.

Crunch Time Continues with Part Two…

In our next piece, we’re diving into the top 20 industries that suffer from high stress levels due to crunch culture. Is your industry one of them? Check back tomorrow to find out!