Last Saturday, September 3, during a series of tweets talking about Gamescom and the big video game events, a well-known name in the world of video games unleashed the fury of fans and the press. Glen Schofield—veteran of Dead Spaceseveral Call of Duty and currently in charge of The Callisto Protocol as CEO of the Striking Distance studio—posted the following about the ‘crunch’:
“We are working 6-7 days a week, nobody is forcing us. Exhaustion, tired, COVID, but we keep working. ‘Bugs’, ‘glitches’, solutions. Another audio review. 12-15 hour work days. This is video games. Have lunch and eat while working. We do it because we love it.”
Understandably, this celebration of ‘crunch’ culture — working overtime and overtime until you drop — didn’t sit well with the community. The excuse that workers do it “because they’re passionate” is often made by senior studio executives who choose not to see the pressure they’re putting on their teams.
Criticism was swift from the video game press, other developers, and gamers themselves. A short time later, Schofield deleted the tweet and posted the following:
“Anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am about the people I work with. Earlier I said how proud I was of the team’s work and effort. That was wrong. We value passion and creativity, not long hours of work. I apologize to the team for putting it this way.”
Although the apologies to his team are appreciated, it is clear that Striking Distance’s work culture is not healthy and the words of the CEO and director Glen Schofield cause concern for the ‘crunch’ that the developers of Striking Distance are victims of. The Callisto Protocol.
Fuente: Glen Schofield Twitter account
