10 Video Game Things They KEEP GETTING WRONG
5. Working Game Developers To The Bone With Crunch
If there's one problem that is plaguing the gaming industry, it's crunch culture.
If you're unfamiliar with what this is, it's when a game is nearing its release date, and game developers are forced - sometimes unpaid - to work excessive amounts of overtime to finish their projects and get the game out of the door in time for release date.
There have been countless horror stories of crunch in the industry coming out in the last few years. Rockstar apparently worked their developers to the bone to push out Red Dead Redemption 2, for example. The developers suffered both mentally and physically so we could enjoy their game.
It's not right, and it ties in again with publishers forcing release dates upon developers. Nothing seems to be done about it either; tongues are wagging and people are talking about it more, but crunch is still an expected part of the development cycle for many big publishers.
Something needs to be done. The games industry should be a fun place to work, not somewhere where people dread going to work for fear of being fired because they wouldn't stay for four hours of unpaid overtime.