Industry analyst Michael Pachter says game developers have no business complaining about working unpaid overtime hours during crunch time and if they donāt like it, they should find another job.
The Team Bondi debacle that blew up last month, with employees coming forward to complain about brutal, near-abusive working conditions and a drawn-out crunch period that saw employees working 110-hour weeks without being paid overtime, is probably the biggest scandal to hit the development industry since EA Spouse blew the whistle on EAās poor labor practices back in 2004. But one man whoās not buying into it is well-known analyst Michael Pachter. He doesnāt deny that it happens, he just doesnāt think it matters.
āIāve never heard a developer say āI donāt work overtime and I donāt work weekends,'ā Pachter said in the new edition of his GameTrailers show Pach Attack. āIf youāre getting into the industry, you are going to work plenty of hours. If your complaint is you worked overtime and didnāt get paid for it, find another profession.ā
āI think thereās a legitimate complaint if crunch time is never-ending,ā he continued. āCrunch should be the last three to six months of game development. I do get that it is a bad and unfair business practice to work 18 months non-stop overtime, [but] I donāt think anybody was entitled to overtime pay.ā
If youāre curious about why Pachter feels this way ā and you should be ā the short answer is that what developers donāt get in overtime pay is generally more than made up for by hefty bonuses, particularly for successful triple-A releases. āIf you want to be an hourly employee, go build automobiles. And what will happen is theyāll close down your plant some day and youāll be out of work,ā he continued. āThe cool thing about this industry is, if youāre good, youāll make a ton of money. I think [the point] everyone is missing is that if a game is good ā and L.A. Noire was good ā there will be a profit pool, and there will be bonuses.ā
As to the question of unions in development studios, which would presumably bring a rapid halt to the sort of behavior that allegedly went on at Team Bondi, Pachter was equally clear. āSweatshops should have unions but game studios, which tend to pay people a lot of money, shouldnāt,ā he said.
The International Game Developerās Association launched an investigation into the labor practices at Team Bondi in June.
via: GamePro
Published: Jul 26, 2011 8:31 AM UTC