Overlooking the past year or so, many of us can agree that the instant success of the battle royale genre has grew immensely, especially surrounding Epic Games’ Fortnite when introducing their own iteration of the game mode to the public market for free. Since then, the game has continued to ring in hundreds of thousands of users daily with new skins, dances, and seasonal events that keeps the game fresh while keeping up with the audience’s demand for more.
According to a recent report from Polygon, this sudden push for more content on at a constant rate has left many of the developers to push past the standard work week and into crunch time rounding around 70 to 100-hour work weeks.
This closing up similarly to how those at Rockstar Games experienced prior to the release of last year’s Red Dead Redemption 2. As just like the previous situation, many are exceeding past twice the amount of hours within a regular work week which averages around 40 hours for most occupations, leading into overtime.
Shared from one source within Epic Games, working the extensive hours only went one way, and those who refused to put in the crunch didn’t last long at the publisher as they were let go shortly after. “I know some people who just refused to work weekends, and then we missed a deadline because their part of the package wasn’t completed, and they were fired,” one source told Polygon. “People are losing their jobs because they don’t want to work these hours.”
Following Polygon publishing their report, Epic Games responded by stating that these 100-hour work weeks are “incredibly rare”. Discussing contractors at the company, a spokesman explained that the terms revolving around these conditions are mentioned before signing on with Epic Games.
All Epic contractors have a fixed contract term that is communicated up-front, typically between six and 12 months. Epic makes contract renewal decisions based on the quality of work performed and willingness to work at times needed to meet critical release dates.
Despite the negative connotation surrounding the idea of crunch at Epic Games, some developers have told Polygon to accept why these events are happening, understanding that they are obligated to work these extensive work shifts due to the game’s popularity. “Everyone understands. You are being paid more money than most people will ever make in their careers anywhere else. Your time is bought and accounted for; shut up, keep your head down, and do the work.”
Looking at the advantages of working more hours, extra bonuses, and other benefits from working at Epic Games, some took advantage of the situation more unorthodox then how most experience crunch at the publisher. “Most employees don’t mind crunching if you are giving them three times their salary in bonuses. A lot of people leave. They come in, think to themselves ‘I am gonna stick it out for four bonus checks, and then I am out’.”
For how this will unravel for those who continue to work in these hardened conditions at the publisher seems to be unchanged until unionization takes affect within the industry as many continue to push for the a labor union of some sort. So stories similar to this will continue to emerge until developers ultimately stand up for some sort of unification.
Source: Polygon
