The Studio Behind The Outer Worlds Is “Committed” to Not Crunching on Games
Obsidian Entertainment, the developers of the upcoming RPG The Outer Worlds, is a game studio that’s “committed” to not having its employees crunch during game development, according to senior designer Brian Hines.
Hines told PCGamesN in an interview that Obsidian not being “a crunch studio” is “one of the things that keeps people staying there for a long time.” However, Hines also said that, at times, staff will be requested to work extra hours in order to meet development deadlines.
“There really hasn’t been a crunch or a death march or anything like that with the studio for quite a long time, as far as I can remember anyway,” Hines added. “That’s definitely one of the things that as a studio we’re very committed to, we’d rather cut something than try and get people to not have a life outside of the industry.”
Crunch is a controversial gaming industry issue that’s been put under the spotlight in recent years. Critics of crunch say that it’s exploitative of game developers while some defenders of crunch insist that it’s necessary for the creation of critically-acclaimed games that come out of studios known for crunching such as Rockstar Games and Naughty Dog.
If you’d like to learn more about The Outer Worlds then check out our E3 2019 feature for the game.
What do you think of this news? Go ahead and speak your mind in the comments section below.