Present at Gamescom 2022, The Callisto Protocol is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated games of this end of the year. And, the least we can say is that the recent information shared via the new gameplay footage shown during Opening Night Live as well as the previews and interviews offered by the press did not disappoint the public. .
However, it would seem that the faultless title in terms of communication has ceased. Last weekend, Glen Schofieldthe project director and CEO of Striking Distance Studios, has been singled out and slammed on social media for posting a tweet promoting the culture of crunch. A message which was deleted in stride but not quickly enough since it was notably seen by a certain Jason Schreier.
Glen Schofield tries to put out the fire he started
This, from a studio head, is crunch culture defined. 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.” Weaponized passion. This is why people burn out of gaming pic.twitter.com/seyE7tkPuf
—Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) September 3, 2022
According to the capture relayed by the Bloomberg journalist and the GamesIndustry site, in response to a question asking him why the communication around the horror and survival game was not more intense, Glen Schofield answered this:
“I only talk about the game during an event. We work 6-7 days a week, nobody forces us. Exhaustion, fatigue, COVID but we are working. Bugs, glitches, performance fixes. 1 last audio pass. 12-15 hour days. This is the video game. It’s hard work. Lunch, working dinner. You do it because you like it. »
Very quickly, these remarks have, unsurprisingly, started to cause a real outcry on the web at a time when the culture of crunch within the industry has been increasingly singled out in recent years, in particular because of the dangers that this “way of working” represents for the health of developers.
Faced with the start of the fire that he himself started, the boss of the American studio deleted his post and tried to defuse the situation by posting a new one a few hours later :
“Anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am about the people I work with. Earlier I tweeted how proud I was of the effort and hours the team put into it. It was a mistake. We value passion and creativity, not long hours. I’m sorry the team stumbled upon this. » It remains to be seen whether this will succeed in convincing the most skeptical.
Anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am about the people I work with. 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.
— Glen A. Schofield (@GlenSchofield) September 3, 2022
In any case, let’s hope it was a big blunder on Glen Schofield’s part and that the design of The Callisto Protocol takes place in the best possible conditions until its release scheduled for December 2 on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.