Dead Space creator’s deleted comments show how pervasive crunch culture is

polygon.com:

Glen Schofield, the co-creator of Dead Space now heading up the production of its spiritual sequel The Callisto Protocol, has walked back comments he made this weekend that appeared to valorize overlong working hours at his company, Striking Distance Studios.

As reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Schofield said that his team at Striking Distance was working 12 to 15 hour days, six to seven days a week, to finish the game. (The Callisto Protocol’s release date is Dec. 2.) He said nobody was “forcing” the team to crunch in this way, but admitted they were experiencing “exhaustion.”

“We r working 6-7 days a week, nobody’s forcing us. Exhaustion, tired, Covid but we’re working. Bugs, glitches, perf fixes. 1 last pass thru audio. 12-15 hr days. This is gaming. Hard work. Lunch, dinner, working. U do it cause ya luv it,” Schofield tweeted on Saturday.

Later the same day, Schofield deleted the tweet, and offered a retraction and an apology to the Striking Distance staff, saying, “We value passion and creativity, not long hours.”

“Anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am about the people I work with,” he said. “Earlier I tweeted how proud I was of the effort and hours the team was putting in. That was wrong. We value passion and creativity, not long hours. I’m sorry to the team for coming across like this.”

There’s no reason to think Schofield is not sincere in his apology. But, as Schreier pointed out, his original tweet is a textbook example of how unhealthy working practices and crunch culture persist in the video game industry.

Schofield is a charismatic and creative figure, and well liked within the industry. With a background in art, he has been making games for over 30 years. He was a key player at Crystal