6 ‘Dream Jobs’ No Sane Person Should Want

3AAA Game Studios Are Cutting-Edge Sweatshops

Are video games actually worth 70 bucks? If so, it’s because the studios really need to hire twice as many staff to adequately make them. The world (exec and gamer alike) treats the backbone of the game industry like an old mule that needs a beating.

Innocuously nicknamed “the crunch,” the final stages of a game’s development are wrought with frantic last-second testing, tweaking, and optimization. Look no further than huge titles such as Red Dead Redemption 2, The Last of Us: Part 2, and Anthem, for a sobering glimpse into how the sausage is made. Dan Houser, the co-founder of Rockstar Games, once bragged that his employees worked 100-hour work weeks, but his galley slaves doing all the work weren’t quite so keen on the mandatory overtime without any benefits or extra compensation.

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Naughty Dog, the devs of The Last of Us franchise, managed only a paltry a 12-hour-a-day pace. The situation was worse in Edmonton, the site of BioWare’s dev team on the notoriously rushed Anthem. Staff reported a crushing weight of stress and sadness that ended in mass crying fits. As one member recalled, “Depression and anxiety are an epidemic within Bioware.” Not much better for the irate gamers intimately acquainted with the Anthem error screen.

Kevin Simpson

Fortunately, blue is a calming color.

If these poor bastards weren’t getting enough abuse from their bosses, they receive it from their own supposed “fans” at the mere mention of necessary delays. All that hate for trying to make sure the game isn’t a buggy piece of crap. No wonder we only get one Elder Scrolls and GTA game a decade.

6 ‘Dream Jobs’ No Sane Person Should Want
Source: Pinoy Daily News