Image via Striking Distance Studios
Glen Schofield, CEO of Striking Distance Studios and director of The Callisto Protocol has apologized for a tweet that appeared to be promoting crunch culture.
In the now-deleted tweet, Schofield wrote: “I only talk about the game during an event. We are 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.”
His tweet earned him lots of backlash from Twitter users who believed that Schofield’s comments were promoting crunch culture. Some accused him of saying that developers that didn’t work through such conditions did not have passion for their projects. Schofield later deleted the tweet.
Following up with his now-deleted tweet, Schofield wrote that: “Anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am about the people I work with. 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.”
Historically, crunch culture has been a major point of discussion and controversy in the gaming industry. Game studios are notoriously some of the most stressful in the tech industry, with the idea of crunch culture being a cause of major turnover rates and elevated workplace stress and anxiety.
Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier called out Schofield, stating that “‘You do it because you love it.’ Weaponized passion. This is why people burn out of gaming.”
He later continued by saying: “Such a weird coincidence how the guy bragging about how his team works 6-7 days a week for 12-15 hours a day because they love it also happens to be the guy who controls all their salaries, titles, and current employment status.”
Schreier has reported on crunch culture in gaming before.
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Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
