Glen Schofield, the founder of Striking Distance Studios, has apologised after his tweet which seemingly glorified crunch culture went viral.
Yesterday (September 3) Schofield, who is currently leading the team developing The Callisto Protocol, posted a tweet that read: “I only talk about the game during an event. We are working 6 to 7 days a week, nobody’s forcing us. Exhaustion, tired, COVID, but we’re working. Bugs, glitches, performance fixes, One last pass through audio. 12 to 15 hours days. This is gaming. Hard work. Lunch, dinner, working. You do it ‘cos you love it.”
This glorification of crunch culture was swiftly met with backlash, with one reporter writing: “Of course nobody is ‘forced’ to work insane hours. But imagine the reduced bonuses and lack of promotion opportunities if you don’t? ‘You do it because you love it.’ Weaponised passion.”
“This is why people burn out of gaming,” he continued. “Such a weird coincidence how the guy bragging about how his team works 6 to 7 days a week for 12 to 15 hours a day because they love it also happens to be the guy who controls all their salaries, titles, and current employment status.”
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
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) September 3, 2022
The same day, Schofield deleted his original Tweet and posted an apology.
“Anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am about the people I work with,” he said. “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.”
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However he’s yet to address if working conditions will actually change at Striking Distance Studios.
As it stands, The Callisto Protocol is due for release on December 2 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
Striking Distance has also expressed interest in making a Callisto Protocol franchise with the studio’s chief creative officer saying they’d “love” to see the series expand after the release of the first game.
In other news, Destiny 2 players are banding together and applying gold shaders to their armour sets in support of childhood cancer awareness month.