One reason is that since the developers are employees of the publisher, their interests are aligned with those of the publisher; the publisher may spend less effort ensuring that the developer's decisions do not enrich the developer at the publisher's expense. Activision in 1979 became the first third-party video game developer.
programmers left the company following its sale to Warner Communications, partially over the lack of respect that the new management gave to programmers, they used their knowledge of how Atari VCS game cartridges were programmed to create their own games for the system, founding Activision in 1979 to sell these.
The movement argued that Telltale had not given any warning to its 250 employees let go, having hired additional staff as recently as a week prior, and left them without pensions or health-care options; it was further argued that the studio considered this a closure rather than layoffs, as to get around failure to notify required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 preceding layoffs.
Around 10% of the workforce in video games is estimated to be from contract labor. == Demographics of game development == In 1989, according to Variety, women constituted only 3% of the gaming industry.
Because crunch time tends to come from a combination of corporate practices as well as peer influence, the term "crunch culture" is often used to discuss video game development settings where crunch time may be seen as the norm rather than the exception. Surveys from game developers in the 2000s showed the average working week was at least 46 hours for more than 60% of respondents; when crunch time occurs, workweeks of 60 to 80 hours, or in some cases, 100 hours or more, have been reported.
Once a product is delivered, and the necessity for crunch no longer required, some companies allow their employees to take paid time-off in compensation for the overtime hours they had put in, or may offer salary raises and bonuses for successful completion of the delivery milestone. Crunch time has been used in the industry but until 2004 was generally not discussed openly.
A 2004 survey by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) found only about 3% of respondents did not work any overtime, and of those that did, nearly half were not compensated for overtime.
Attention to crunch was brought to the forefront by Erin Hoffman, posting anonymously under the name "EA Spouse", in 2004, describing the working hours her husband had faced at Electronic Arts (EA).
In 2004, following Hoffman's blog, the IGDA issued a report on the negative consequences of crunch time on developers and their quality of life.
A 2014 IGDA survey found nearly 20% of game developers did not see any crunch, and where there was crunch, the average number of hours worked had dropped from the prior 2004 survey: in 2004, 35% had said they worked between 65 and 80 hours per week, while by 2014, 35% said they had worked from 50 to 65 hours.
Developer DICE had reached its union agreements in 2004.
Besides creating discussion within the industry on the effects of a crunch culture, EA faced two class action lawsuits by EA employees, with both ultimately settled with EA paying back the employees by 2006.
On the other hand, Sonic Team's 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game was rushed in development to meet deadlines for holiday sales that year, suffering in quality, and has become known as one of poorest-received video games.
An experienced game-development employee, depending on their expertise and experience, averaged roughly $73,000 in 2007.
An exception is California, where software developers are specifically protected by a minimum hourly wage to be considered exempt, which as of 2008 was set to $36 an hour. When crunch time does occur, the publisher or developer may help encourage employees by offering "crunch meals" that are delivered to the offices.
EA also announced it would reclassify some of its developers as hourly employees eligible for overtime but eliminating their stock options. A similar situation occurred in January 2010, when a collective group of "Rockstar Spouses", the spouses of developers at Rockstar San Diego, posted an open letter criticizing the management of the studio for deteriorating working conditions for their significant others since March 2009, which included excessive crunch time.
EA also announced it would reclassify some of its developers as hourly employees eligible for overtime but eliminating their stock options. A similar situation occurred in January 2010, when a collective group of "Rockstar Spouses", the spouses of developers at Rockstar San Diego, posted an open letter criticizing the management of the studio for deteriorating working conditions for their significant others since March 2009, which included excessive crunch time.
For example, Activision acquired Raven (1997); Neversoft (1999), which merged with Infinity Ward in 2014; Z-Axis (2001); Treyarch (2001); Luxoflux (2002); Shaba (2002); Infinity Ward (2003) and Vicarious Visions (2005).
A 2014 IGDA survey found nearly 20% of game developers did not see any crunch, and where there was crunch, the average number of hours worked had dropped from the prior 2004 survey: in 2004, 35% had said they worked between 65 and 80 hours per week, while by 2014, 35% said they had worked from 50 to 65 hours.
A survey performed by the International Game Developers Association in 2014 found that more than half of the 2,200 developers surveyed favored unionization. In 2016, voice actors in the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union doing work for video games struck several major publishers, demanding better royalty payments and provisions related to the safety of their vocal performances, when their union's standard contract was up for renewal.
According to Gamasutra's Game Developer Salary Survey 2014, women in the United States made 86 cents for every dollar men made.
In a 2014 & 2015 survey of job positions and salaries, the IGDA found that people of color were both underrepresented in senior management roles as well as underpaid in comparison to white developers.
In a 2014 & 2015 survey of job positions and salaries, the IGDA found that people of color were both underrepresented in senior management roles as well as underpaid in comparison to white developers.
A survey performed by the International Game Developers Association in 2014 found that more than half of the 2,200 developers surveyed favored unionization. In 2016, voice actors in the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union doing work for video games struck several major publishers, demanding better royalty payments and provisions related to the safety of their vocal performances, when their union's standard contract was up for renewal.
The voice actor strike lasted for over 300 days into 2017 before a new deal was made between SAG-AFTRA and the publishers.
While this had some effects on a few games within the industry, it brought to the forefront the question of whether video game developers should unionize. A grassroots movement, Game Workers Unite, was established around 2017 to discuss and debate issues related to unionization of game developers.
Families of Rockstar developers for Red Dead Redemption 2 in October 2018 brought forth similar concerns as the prior "Rockstar Spouse" case.
The group came to the forefront during the March 2018 Game Developers Conference by holding a roundtable discussion with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the professional association for developers.
In the wake of the sudden near-closure of Telltale Games in September 2018, the movement again called out for the industry to unionize.
The 2019 IGDA Developer Survey found that 7% of its respondents identified as Hispanic/Latino, and 2% as black, in contrast to United States Census estimates in 2018 of 18% and 13% respectively.
A 2019 survey of developers by the Game Developers Conference found that nearly half still worked over 40-hour weeks on average with only 12% working more than 50 hours a week on average, though nearly 75% stated they had at least one period where they had worked more than 40 hours in a single week. However, stories of crunch time still have brought more awareness that crunch remained an accepted practice in the game industry.
By 2019, IGDA found 24% of its survey participants reported as female.
The 2019 IGDA Developer Survey found that 7% of its respondents identified as Hispanic/Latino, and 2% as black, in contrast to United States Census estimates in 2018 of 18% and 13% respectively.
Further calls for unionization came from this news, including the AFL-CIO writing an open letter to video game developers encouraging them to unionize. Game Workers Unite and the Communications Workers of America established a new campaign to push for unionization of video game developers, the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE), in January 2020.
Paradox Interactive became one of the first major publishers to support unionization efforts in June 2020 with its own agreements to cover its Swedish employees within two labor unions. ===Contract workers=== Some of the larger video game developers and publishers have also engaged contract workers through agencies to help add manpower in game development in part to alleviate crunch time from employees.
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