New Shadow Falls on Atomic Heart; New Rumors of Chaos in Studio
Reports have surfaced online about the problems of the studio working on Atomic Heart. Developers are said to be complaining about crunch, unpaid bonuses and a lot of chaos in production.
Atomic Heart is one of the most anticipated launches of early next year. Those looking forward to the debut of this game may be interested in the latest reports, according to which things look bad at studio Mundfish.
- Atomic Heart was to prove to be a very problematic game. The studio's developers are supposedly complaining about crunch, constant changes in the game vision and the lack of promised bonuses.. The most important people in the team often come up with new ideas and force reworking of large parts of the game.
- At a certain stage of work Atomic Heart was supposed to offer open world, from which we would go into more linear "dungeons," but eventually this idea was scrapped. This shows how much change was taking place in the game's concept.
- The whole thing is also said to be designed like a movie - the most important things are the graphics and the storyline, while the gameplay is treated a bit lightly.
- The released gameplay footage always looked good, but according to the reports in question, they came not from the real early version of the project, but from short fragments prepared specifically for these trailers. Therefore, the videos did not reflect the game's true state.
- The pay for weekend work has also reportedly been reduced. Before, the devs were paid 150% of the standard rate, but now it is just 100%. This is despite the fact that the studio is very well funded. Large companies such as Gaijin Entertainment, Tencent and GEM Capital are investing in it.
- The problems at Mundfish are said to be such that people often leave the studio and are replaced by new ones, making work even more chaotic. A large part of the team responsible for the artistic side gave their notice in 2020. The same thing almost happened to the group responsible for testing.
It is worth mentioning that the first rumors about the bad situation in Mundfish - quite similar in tone and content - appeared already in 2019. Of course, all these are unconfirmed reports and therefore should be approached with caution. However, it should be borne in mind that the release of the game has been repeatedly postponed, which suggests there really are problems.
Atomic Heart is scheduled to debut on February 21, 2023 on PC, PS4, PS5, XOne and XSX/S. The game will simultaneously launch on PC/Xbox Game Pass.
