For several weeks, Bethesda’s corporate culture has been of concern to the press and gamers. Pointed out for its use of crunch, the developer received full support from the head of Xbox Games Studios. In a recent question and answer session, Matt Booty indeed said to himself “confident” on the absence of crunch within the current teams.
A practice of the past
In early June, Kotaku shared the results of a survey of current and former Bethesda employees. Many exchanges and testimonials thus returned to the development of Fallout 76 and drew the outlines of a trying period. A production marked in particular by excessive working hours for employees and excessive pressure.
Interrogates on the subject, Matt Booty judged “unfair” the criticisms addressed to the American studio. The head of Xbox Game Studios thus recalled that the truths of yesteryear are not those of today. The crunch is an evil of the industry, no doubt it was also for Bethesda but at a different time, before Microsoft owned it.
The problem with many of these articles is that they look back, sometimes quite far back in time. […] Crunch culture is… if you go back 10 years, it’s kind of unfair to put that on one studio. It was just part of the industry. I’m not saying that to justify it, I’m just saying it was part of the culture of the industry. I literally slept under my desk early in my career.
Trust and control
Far from legitimizing the crunch, Matt Booty recalled that overtime should not be a rule in business. And as such, he was convinced that it no longer had its place at Bethesda. “I know from talking to executives at Bethesda that we don’t have a situation where people are crunching and we have this oppressive atmosphere. I’m confident about that.”
Aware, however, that the crunch could be applied without his knowledge, the man also wanted to reassure about the procedures in place. Xbox wants to be on the side of developers and be open about handling problem cases. This is why the American firm is setting up alert channels available to employees. “There are ways for them to report this to us anonymously through HR” points out Matt Booty
Xbox has taken a position on these societal issues for several years now. The firm wants to be pro-active and advocates for the well-being of developers. However, whether at Ubisoft or Activision-Blizzard, HR has never been of much help. That’s why it probably takes more than that.
Earlier in 2022, Phil Spencer guaranteed to support the unionization wish of professionals in the industry. IHe had also said he wanted to recognize the union being created at Raven Software once the takeover of Activision Blizzard has been completed.
And it is also on the actions that we will judge if Xbox is up to its words. The reports of Starfield or Redfall are moving in this direction, giving developers time to pursue their ideas without imposing an unsustainable schedule. It now remains to ensure that this is indeed the reality of the teams.