Fortnite devs are reportedly working “100 hour” weeks
78 replies, posted
"An Epic spokesperson told Polygon the unexpected success of Fortnite “had created difficulties,” and that employees “are working very hard on Fortnite and other Epic efforts.” But “extreme situation such as 100-hour work weeks are incredibly rare, and in those instances, we seek to immediately remedy them to avoid recurrence.""
this part is so bullshit I can smell it through my screen..
Speaking of, Tim was finally man enough to admit it.
https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/1120441795010338816
Or higher-ups who work 32 hours a week at best, taking off every Friday, but they come out to tell you how it's just them putting in 100 hour work weeks so that no one else has to because they are just such a good boss.
I'm guessing voluntary overtime means they aren't getting paid? If so that's fucked Cruz like epic has made one of the most successful games in recent memory, so the employee bonuses should be a reflection of that success.
but they do immediately remedy it
via firing
Ewww.
Epic is running on borrowed time. When the Fortnite craze dies down they'll be out of employees and money, and a lot of companies will likely cut ties to actually get good sales numbers again.
I think people do keep forgetting that they own the most powerful and popular real-time engine in the market right now.
Nonetheless they are capitalizing whatever advantage they have right now. Unfortunately the money won't run dry any time soon.
This is going to put so much stress on other games' maintenance crew once the kids grow up and expects no less.
Okay, now I can fully hop on the "fuck epic" bandwagon
There is no valid reason for a desk job to exceed 40 hours a week. It is always a failure of management either not hiring enough people, setting goals too high, or both.
And theyre not the ones punished for it. It makes me sick.
Being in the games industry shouldn't come at the cost of having no time for family, relationships, or hobbies.
100 fucking hours
That's more than double the work hours during one week in most western world countries.
right before getting fired I bet
Which also shows why Steam's 30% isn't outrageous because they have a lot more costs associated with running the platform and offer far, far more features for developers. If Valve tried to run at 12% and keep everything on offer, Steam would not be profitable at all.
I don't need any time for family, relationships, or hobbies. I've worked overtime with no complaints before. I have a laser focused, obsessive personality and that makes working overtime not as big of a problem for me, as long as I take short breaks so I don't burn out. Companies shouldn't expect all of their employees to be like that though.
Even for me, 100 hour work weeks would be way too much. That's insane and if it's really happening at Epic then I hope something is done about it.
This is basically "games as a live service" crunch time all the time and it never stops.
Fuck any and every single company that thinks this bullshit is ok. I'm almost certain these are salary and not hourly based wages, so this is a double fuck you. Meanwhile I bet top level executes show up for not even half the day and then fuck off back home to parade how wonderful this company is. These people need to strike hard and quick.
This is why, even as someone who loves games and probably could go into the industry, I won't. More people need to do the same, IMO. They treat developers like dirt because they know they have a hoard of bright-eyed newbies ready to dance on command for a chance to work their 'dream job'. The more people who decide they want no part in this shit, the easier it'll be for devs to get improved work condition and/or unionize, because the fact of the matter is that right now they're 'disposable'.
I really hate how Epic went from being a pretty cool PC publisher in the early 90s, to this monstrosity of a exploitative company now.
EpIc StOrE iS fOr ThE dEvS
Hypocritical fuckers.
You know, Cliff Bleszinski didn't do so well with LawBreakers, but I think it was the right decision for him to leave Epic.
Developers first, but only when it makes us more money
Like clockwork. Suppose Jim will do a 180 on his stance about the Epic store now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT14-lyqofA
All Valve really has to do is continue improving their own platform, maybe churn out some first-party exclusives of their own? Would really tank Epic's muster as they can't keep bribing publishers forever, and Fortnites success will wane eventually - although if TF2 is any indication then it'll be after roughly a decade
Jim is not the best and all, but he has stated he never was in favor of it. he just saw it as expected competition for steam, though with news like this, I am sure he will add them to his rants as well.
Jim seems to put developers first in all things. Which is admirable when it comes to shaming companies for treating their employees badly but annoying when it comes to justifying them shitting on the people that buy their games.
Officially Voluntary, in the sense that yes you can say No, but uh, don't expect to have a job when you return.
Remember guys, Steam kills small developers, but at least Epic has the balls to kill their own employees.
For those of you saying "fuck Epic" and only that, don't forget that most of the AAA industry is like this. It isn't just Epic.
This is an industry wide issue, and I really hope it results in game dev unions picking up speed. AAA game dev jobs NEED unions, because in A LOT of cases, these people are being over worked while also typically getting below the industry average in terms of pay. Epic at the very least pays above industry average, but I'd certainly HOPE THEY WOULD with all the heaps of money they have lying around, and it certainly DOES NOT excuse this.
As for if it'll ever be stopped, probably not. Only lessened, because as the industry continues to grow, and consumers want more and more faster and faster, AAA publishers have to result to over-working their developers just to make deadlines while keeping the budget as low as possible. Publishers never want to delay a game's production or have it take a long time because they want to pay in as little as possible while getting back as much as possible. A broken and buggy game being sold in a year is better to them than a polished game coming out in 2 years, because they know most consumers will just lap up those games regardless of quality.
This news regarding Epic does not surprise me in the least, especially given how frequent Fortnite's updates are and how the frequency of the game's updates is one of the main reasons why people still play it. Even a 1,000 developer team would struggle to keep such a thing going without having to resort to crunch. It's a sad as fuck state and should never be the norm, but as "games as a service" continues to chug along in popularity, this will be an unfortunate fact of AAA until unions step in.
I unironically believe some amount of marketing manipulation has gone into making the masses forget that consumers are a group that is at most danger of being taken advantage of in any given transaction.
People see championing a developer as a noble and true cause, completely forgetting about their own rights in the process.
Are they even based in America? Pretty sure this isn't legal.
I mean greedy publishers are taking advantage of both their developers AND consumers. They over work their developers to produce shoddy games laden with microtransactions that people still buy. Everyone but the business end is getting fucked by AAA.
I do think it's important that we always do take the developers into account. Not in a way to place them on a pedestal, but to remember that they are humans and workers at the end of the day, and that if they probably had their full ways with the games they wanted to make, they'd probably try to make something that balances consumer needs with artistic integrity. Instead, they're shackled to what the publisher wants, and so they make the things that consumers don't like in their games, because you can either help to make that microtransaction system, or you can not have a job.
There's a reason why indie developers are on the rise, and why most indie devs have a background in AAA development. Those are the ones that are able to make their own stand. However, not every AAA developer can make that stand or transition. Going indie is risky as fuck, and I applaud those who have seen it through, but not every AAA developer wants to take that risk. They would rather work for a publisher that doesn't have to worry about potentially closing its doors at any moment, and so they stay, working at the whims of said publisher for a steady paycheck.
Not saying that consumers shouldn't be taken into account, they very much should, but I'm saying most of the blame for the current status of the industry does not lie solely on the backs of developers, but rather, the publishers dictating them.
At the end of the day we're all humans and workers, and we're all being unfairly taken advantage of in some way. I just wish some people wouldn't forget that consumers in the gaming market are just as unprecedentedly mistreated in their own respective ways to developers in the gaming industry. Having to pay extra for a game or a game having MTX doesn't seem as brutal as crunch time for developers, but almost everyone is a consumer of games in some way. I wish more people remembered that.
If it's not clear I don't have a lot of experience that I can relate to game developers, just general respect for what they do. So it's easier for me to default to consumer issues than developer issues. I always mean to point the finger at the publishers, from a consumer standpoint they just sometimes blend together unfortunately. I really mean no disrespect to developers, just more promoting self-respect for consumers.
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