Callisto Protocol director’s tweet sparks crunch discussion

pcgamesn.com:

A now-deleted tweet from The Callisto Protocol director Glen Schofield, the co-creator of Dead Space and former co-director on several Call of Duty games, has fired up discussions about crunch in videogame development over America’s Labor Day weekend. Crunch culture has long been a serious point of discussion, especially in the game industry. The concept of ‘crunch’ – working long overtime hours to push for more development progress – has been widely criticised by many prominent members of the industry for causing negative symptoms including burnout and depression among developers forced (explicitly or implicitly) into pushing past healthy work boundaries.

The tweet, from Striking Distance Studios CEO Glen Schofield, read as follows (edited for clarity): “I only talk about the game [The Callisto Protocol] during an event. We are working 6-7 days a week, nobody’s forcing us. Exhaustion, tired, Covid, but we’re working. Bugs, glitches, performance fixes. One last pass through audio. 12-15 hour days. This is gaming. Hard work. Lunch, dinner working. You do it ‘cause ya love it.”

The tweet was later deleted by Schofield, but was archived by several people including Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who posted a screenshot of the tweet. Schreier hits out at the sentiment, calling it “weaponised passion” and saying, “This, from a studio head, is crunch culture defined. Of course nobody is ‘forced’ to work insane hours. But imagine the reduced bonuses and lack of promotion opportunities if you don’t?” Schreier goes on to say that “This is why people burn out of gaming [development].”

Schofield then posted a tweet apologising for his earlier statement. In his follow-up, he says, “I tweeted how proud I was of the effort and