Video game industry faces ‘crunch time’ crisis

By Alexander Thompson

AUSTIN — Telltale Games laid off about 275 staff members Sept. 21 after a studio shut down, causing massive disappointment online toward the game company and its practices.

Employees wrote on Twitter and discussed crunch time, a critical point in a video game development cycle that requires employees to work hard and fast to complete the project. They projected the concern about no pay for overtime labor, which caused a stir in the gaming community. A

Issues of labor in the gaming industry have always been a part of the job as described by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). Responses to the 2017 Developer Satisfaction survey indicate that crunch is still a major concern but has been decreasing ever so slightly. The video game industry has no unions or laws to addresses burned out developers.

“Developers back in the 70’s were treated as textile workers on short deadlines with no royalties at Atari. They’re weren’t seen as creatives, only numbers,” said David Cohen, a professor of practice in the Department of Arts and Entertainment Technology at The University of Texas at Austin. He has published over 400 articles dealing with video game history.

“Crunch was fought for a couple years and came back due to the great recession. Employers treated developers as if they were lucky to have a job, so they better crunch,” Cohen said.

“Right now, we don’t have laws in place, so young developers are being exploited for having no spouses, family responsibilities and a hunger to work,” Cohen said. “However, I’ve had people who were too passionate sometimes and wanted to work overtime.”

The satisfaction survey found crunch happens more often than once a year, and developers put 50 percent more hours than the standard 40-hour work week.

Issues about overtime have litigated before. The spouse of an Electronic Arts (EA) CEO, Erin Hoffman blogged in 2004about how she never saw her husband when he would pull 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. shifts. Messages about this spread and other spouses complained to the company.

Jaime Kirschenbaum, a graphic designer at EA, then filed a class action lawsuit claiming many employees had unpaid overtime. Two years later, EA settled $15.6 million to compensate for overtime.

Recently, Polygon reported on Sep. 25 that Vernie Roberts, a former Telltale employee, filed a class action lawsuit that said, “(Telltale) let go of the employees “without cause” and without providing them with “advance written notice as required by the WARN Act.”

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 requires a company with more than 100 employees to give a 60-day notice to employees about massive layoffs. Just like in 2004, labor laws are being broken and leaving many developers without jobs and pay.

Former Telltale developer, Brandon Cebenka, went to Twitter Sep. 21 to post, “None of my sleepless nights or long hours on weekends trying to ship a game on time got me severance today. Don’t work overtime unless you’re paid for it, y’all. Protect your health. Companies don’t care about you.”

The attitude from many developers is that the culture is appropriate and normal to the industry.

“It’s the norm, if you don’t do it then someone will,” Sandro Kvlivdze said.

Kvlivdze is a game designer at Nordeus in Serbia. He has worked under pressure many times, as crunch is considered normal within the industry and executives exploit it.

“They’re bribing the crisis. There are a lot more naïve and passionate young people out there,” Kvlivdze said.

The IGDA survey highlights that with intense working hours employees demand fair compensation for time spent working in and out of the office.

“Companies are more conscious now,” Cohen said. “The older generation of game developers (like me) physically can’t work like this, so young workers will always be sought out.”

Companies like Blizzard Entertainment who have an office based in Austin think globally and open-minded. They’re mission statement respects individuals and quality of ideas.

“While respecting the cultural diversity that makes people unique… we also seek the most passionate, talented people in the world to enrich our company,” Blizzard said in a statement.