Head of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty addressed the latest reports of crunching during Fallout 76 development calling it “unfair” but, what has been really happening inside Bethesda, to begin with?
At the beginning of June, Kotaku spoke to 10 former employees of Bethesda and its parent company ZeniMax Media who shared their experiences during the development of Fallout 76.
The worst part was for testers who worked 10-hour days, six days a week, in the months leading up to release.“No one wanted to be on that project because it ate people. It destroyed people.”
How did Xbox respond?
According to PC Gamer, Xbox held a meeting on Thursday where they addressed the growing employee concerns about labour conditions at Bethesda Game Studios and its parent company, ZeniMax.
Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, said he was “confident” that the studio was not crunching, however things don’t seem to have changed after Microsoft bought Bethesda last year as many insiders claim that the company is taking a hands-off approach to the studio.
Kotaku was able to verify the contents of this meeting by viewing a recorded video where Booty said:
“Crunch culture is…if you go back 10 years ago, it’s a little unfair to put that on one studio […] it was just part of the industry. I don’t say 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. And we looked at that like a badge of honour.”
Booty remarked that the working conditions detailed in the report were in the past, as he confirmed it from talking to Bethesda leadership.
We have entered rocky waters again, and we can understand the frustration behind being the first studio that comes to mind when you mention crunching. However, the well-being of collaborators and employees should be the first and most important thing for companies, it is incredible how little have we advanced in workplace-related issues.
If you want to read the whole report and interviews, you can read it here.
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