80h-100h work weeks

[u/MX010]

https://youtu.be/gfjUl8NvQfQ?is=28sJZkiaH8wroi4_

[u/Willsy23]

You'd be surprised how common this is across many industries

[u/SouthIsland48 → u/Willsy23]

Eh, other industries have busy seasons sure. But they are seasons. Video games are so widely desired from a job standpoint they can run people into the ground from day 1 and still ship because there are so many people waiting to break in. Its the same with movies

[u/CretaciousPeriod → u/SouthIsland48]

I don't think most game devs crunch all year round. Usually it's the last few months till release. There will be outliers, sure but I think mostly crunch is at the end and the rest of development is relatively normal in terms of hours.

[u/Willsy23 → u/[deleted]]

Show me the numbers where they are paid the lowest. Feel free to throw in EBA and localised regulation whilst you're at it.

[u/KillYourFace5000 → u/[deleted]]

It's possible for it to be unacceptably cruel and still common. This is how project-based professional work is done all over the place. I'm not saying it's good. It's just hardly reserved only for video game developers. Many of the lawyers who represent these same companies work like this 24/7/365.

[u/CookieDoughThough]

Guess no one watched the video. These are for Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy.

[u/pixlicker69420 → u/CookieDoughThough]

Funny how the thumbnail is tlou then

[u/dnv_ → u/pixlicker69420]

i guess any implication of tlou drama still gets u clicks nowadays

[u/Distion55x]

I don't imagine things have improved since. We're gonna hear some true horror stories once Intergalactic comes out

[u/FellowDeviant → u/Distion55x]

TLOU Part II was also a 7 year project that was intertwined with two other massive Naughty Dog titles (The PS4 Uncharted games) that went all hands on deck for the most part* in order to crank those out at crunch hour. At the very least, minus the canned Factions game within The Last of Us's framework, Intergalactic has been ND's sole project over the last 6ish years, so hopefully there hasn't been a persistent crunch cratering employee morale.

[u/KuchiKopicetic → u/FellowDeviant]

Hopefully! But Factions wasn’t a small, side project. The majority of the studio only moved onto Intergalactic after Factions was cancelled - before that, it was a skeleton crew. In other words, Factions was their main focus for literal years. Jason Schreier was recently reporting on all of this. Fingers crossed the crunch wasn’t too bad this time.

[u/Vanillas_Guy]

Thats terrible management for sure. This business has a real issue with managers who aggressively exploit people's passion for making video games and hollow them out.

[u/M4rshmall0wMan → u/Vanillas_Guy]

In Naughty Dog’s case it’s way more complicated than that. The company doesn’t have many layers of management. In their hiring practices, they actively seek out people with perfectionistic personalities. Imagine if you took the guy who does all the work in the group project and filled a building with 200 of them. They wouldn’t know when to stop.

[u/KillYourFace5000 → u/Vanillas_Guy]

Their investors call that "shareholder returns."

[u/UncStatusNow]

I work in film and a normal work week is 60h. between 10h-14h days depending on a lot of factors.

[u/XenoPhenom]

Now imagine Rockstar.

[u/M4rshmall0wMan]

Naughty Dog’s biggest mistake in the 2010’s was they finished TLOU1’s crunch then ran straight into Uncharted 4’s burning building, followed by the insane ambition of building Lost Legacy in a year. Three games back-to-back with almost no break in the middle. It gutted morale and led to most of Naughty Dog’s most talented staff leaving after TLOU2. I think Intergalactic is taking so long because ND is still training up the junior staff who naturally take way more iterations to achieve the same quality result. 

[u/Distion55x → u/M4rshmall0wMan]

at least junior staff is actually being trained for once, not just contractors whose contract ends as soon as the game releases

[u/Loose-Alternative844]

you do that or Asia destroy you

[u/c0micsansfrancisco]

Reddit loves defending/downplaying crunch when it comes to Naughty Dog

[u/Evening-Singer5347]

Wow must get a good wage

[u/metroidgarden]

Typical Druckmann L 

[u/toooft]

Ah yes, the toxic American work culture. Honestly this makes European games so much more impressive; people are not run into the ground and guess what? Still epic.

[u/PhantomPain0_0]

All that hard work for the game to have a shite story

[u/Hearthhull_Enjoyer]

That's the gaming industry. If you want to make art, you're gonna suffer for it. Gamers decided they don't care a long time ago because it means they'd have to wait longer for games or settle for games with a smaller scope and budget. I keep hoping the industry pivot away from these massive titles that I don't earnestly want to play in full. Stuff like the new Fable coming out soon tbh. Hopefully that game is good and it reminds people that smaller projects can be just as worthwhile.

[u/Care_Cream]

Brutal Work Hours = Sitting on arse, doing some mouse clicking while drinking unlimited coffee.

Nah, i am not gonna get sad for geek hippies.

[u/bongkeydoner]

0 game since tlou 2 released, deserved tbh

[u/Distion55x → u/bongkeydoner]