Naughty Dog Execs Against Unions; Crunch Said to Benefit Workers
Naughty Dog executives are not convinced by the idea of game developers unionizing. According to the bosses, employees themselves are happy to work after hours.
- Naughty Dog execs have spoken out about the crunch at their studio;
- According to them, trade unions will not solve the problem;
- The crunch is supposed to be for the benefit of the workers themselves.
News about Naughty Dog has been circulating around the wev for quite some time, specifically about the constant crunch at the company. Developers are said to be forced to spend well over 40 hours a week at work, leading to overwork and even health problems. This phenomenon also affects many other studios, which makes the idea of creators unionizing has become more and more widespread in the industry. The idea, of course, does not please the bosses of Naughty Dog.
In an interview with Game Informer, Evan Wells and Neil Druckmann followed in the footsteps of id Software's creative director, stating that developers themselves are happy to stay late. Banning crunch would be met with opposition.
"I don’t know if that would be a solution for crunch. (...) If we had some sort of restriction where when the clock strikes 40 hours the servers shut down and you can’t work anymore, that would frustrate people to no end. There are people who really want to put in that extra polish on their own volition, and they would feel handcuffed."
Wells and Druckmann believe that restricting after-hours crunch time would be detrimental to the employees themselves. Developers are supposed to spend a lot of time in the studio of their own free will, which is related to their commitment to the project. It is difficult to explain why, in this case, they are interested in unionizing. Equally interesting is the fact that many former employees do not share the views of the bosses.
Naughty Dog execs, however, believe that even if they were committed to creating this kind of structure, it wouldn't solve the problem.
"When you try to have a silver bullet, like one solution, you’re always leaving someone behind. That’s why we feel like we need multiple solutions. We have to approach this from multiple angles."
So for now, the position of Naughty Dog bosses is clear. It's unclear how long they'll be able to stick to it. The industry is increasingly vocal in its criticism of crunch, with employees and even the founders of other studios voicing their opinions. We can only hope that in time this situation will change also in the biggest game development companies.
