http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/07/secret-life-games-programmer
Interesting read I think.
Interesting read I think.
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''The Secret Life of a Games Programmer''
- Thread starter Spuff
- Start date
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/07/secret-life-games-programmer
Interesting read I think.
Had this messaged to me earlier (as its related to my studies) and it's pretty common knowledge and standard in the industry. Just a little digging about 'the crunch' and you will see that the industry does have some serious issues. From what I understand, the situation has improved but not completely and varies from studio to studio and publisher to publisher. It's usually the fault of the publisher setting unreasonable targets for release dates and not taking 'its impossible' for an answer.
The issue certainly isn't exclusive to the games industry though, unpaid overtime is common for all kinds of software development to meet deadlines.
I would like to think that Rockstar and Bethesda treat their workers well. They have the money and time to pay well for not overwork. The time it takes them to release a new game suggests that they may.
Generally it's not as bad in the big studios that Rockstar and Bethesda are mostly comprised of. It's usually the smaller studios that you probably haven't heard of that are at biggest risk of being shut down if they don't complete the work by the deadline. Microsoft has literally today gone and done this to I think 5 of their studios including one of the most famous studios in the UK, Lionhead Studios although this was through no fault of the developers, instead it was because Microsoft decided to make Fable a crappy free to play game that flopped instead of just releasing another singleplayer/coop sequel (which I really fricking wanted). It seems like Microsoft are going through a massive reshuffle and are trying to completely get rid of Xbox in recent weeks. Looks increasingly likely that there won't be another Xbox console and they are instead trying to dedicate their efforts to PC (which has worked out sooooooooo well so far).