There are currently disturbing reports about developer TT Games under publisher Warner Bros.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has been in development for three years and is now finally approaching its release: April 5, 2022. However, the announcement and unveiling of new gameplay is supported by a report from Polygon overshadowed in which crunch and sexism described within the studio TT Games.
We give you an overview of the allegations that came up shortly after the announcement of the release date and the presentation of an extensive gameplay trailer.
The main allegations
For the comprehensive report on the conditions within TT Games, Polygon interviewed over 30 different employees who were or are still employed by the development studio. According to Polygon, all respondents chose to remain anonymous to avoid violating any confidentiality obligations or negative consequences
to have to experience.
Crunch as an integral part of everyday work
everyday crunch
: The Polygon report shows that overtime or crunch has been an integral part of TT Games’ day-to-day work for at least ten years. In concrete terms, this means that employees not only have to work longer and harder in exceptional cases, but that this took place regularly and was sometimes even planned.
6:12
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga aims to be fun and family-friendly, but appears to have been created under anything but fun conditions.
According to the statements of the employees surveyed, the worst crunch weeks regularly resulted in 80 to 100 hour weeks. Excessive work and overtime were not only taken for granted by management, but employees were even forced to do so, according to the Polygon report.
Overtime as a matter of course: A developer described the approach of the superiors as quietly spoken blackmail
. Among other things, it is said that employees were yelled at by their bosses when they tried to leave work on time. Otherwise, there is still talk of unspecified bullying within TT Games.
sexism and lack of equality
Unequal pay: Polygon’s report also addresses a sexism issue at TT Games. Female employees should not only be paid significantly less than their male colleagues, you are talking about additional bullying here.
Discrimination and Bullying: Specific incidents are not mentioned. Instead, examples include withheld promotions or contractual arrangements, while women were subjected to comments about their appearance.
You can find out more about sexism in the games industry and what urgently needs to change in our detailed plus report on the subject:
Sexism in the gaming industry
What we can do and what needs to change
Development issues with Lego Skywalker Saga
Many of the issues raised are said to have had a direct impact on the development of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga or have worsened during it. Crunch and overtime were also part of everyday life during the five years of work on the game.
NTT instead of Unreal Engine: However, one particular decision by the management level had a particularly serious effect: Instead of using the Unreal Engine for the game, with which many employees were already familiar, they preferred their own engine called NTT in order to save license costs. Developers have previously voiced their concerns as the proprietary engine was notorious for its instability and error-proneness.
This decision caused numerous internal shifts, sometimes hours of work fell victim to regular crashes. In addition, the situation was made more difficult by the fact that the superiors often wanted to have new ideas implemented in the ongoing development – only to change them again later or even completely discard them.
Shifts and employee wear and tear: Despite the long development period, internal problems at TT Games caused the release date of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga to be postponed three times. In the last twelve months, more than 40 employees have also left the company – which accounts for ten percent of the 400-strong company.
We have already dedicated an extensive report to the topic of crunch at GameStar-Plus:
Crunch in games
Our toughest report on an invisible problem
Is improvement already in sight?
Incidentally, the Polygon report also shows that an improvement in the situation of TT Games is now perhaps even foreseeable. The problems during the development of Lego Star Wars Skywalkers Saga are said to have resulted in various crisis meetings.
Several members of the management level have meanwhile fired TT Games, there should be better pay, overtime limits and work compensation regulations. In addition, the internally hated NTT engine is now being said goodbye for the next project and the Unreal Engine is now actually being used.
But to what extent this will really lead to an improvement in the situation at TT Games remains to be seen.
Of course we asked the publisher Warner Bros. Games for a statement. However, the company does not want to comment on the events surrounding TT Games.
Europe developers about Crunch: Incidentally, we also interviewed Europe game developers on the subject and got their opinions. In the following plus video, the developers behind games like The Surge 2 and Fantasy General 2 explain how this comes about in the first place:
PLUS
22:28
Why does the crunch keep happening? – Europe developers about the stress in the final stages
What consequence could that have?
It is currently unclear what the consequences of the disclosures in the Polygon report will be. However, it cannot be ruled out that TT Games could have problems with Lego itself, for example. So were recently considering the Activision Blizzard sexism scandals Announced Overwatch sets put on hold. Lego also check according to his own statement the partnership with Activision-Blizzard in light of the current allegations.
Lego license at risk? In order to distance itself from the conditions and allegations against the internal processes at TT Games, a comparable measure by Lego could not be ruled out. It remains to be seen whether the Lego license at TT Games is really on the brink.
What conclusion does GameStar draw? As editor-in-chief Heiko Klinge already did in his column on the Blizzard sexism scandal announced, we have since explicitly pointed out problematic events in the course of development in our test articles. However, we continue to refrain from devaluations or even a boycott, because those who are affected by such incidents would also suffer.
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