The Callisto Protocol director Glen Schofield recently tweeted about the game's development, suggesting that his team at Striking Distance Studios is crunching to meet the game's December 2 release date. In the tweet, Schofield said that his Callisto Protocol team is working 12 to 15-hour days, six to seven days per week, all while dealing with exhaustion and COVID. Schofield's tweet caused quite a bit of controversy, and so he deleted it not long after tweeting it out.
Here is the exact text of Schofield's now-deleted tweet: "I only talk about the game during an event. We r working 6-7 days a week, nobody's forcing us. Exhaustion, tired, Covid but we're working. Bugs, glitches, perf fixes. 1 last pass thru audio. 12-15 hour days. This is gaming. Hard work. Lunch, dinner working. U do it cause ya luv it." The gist of it is that Callisto Protocol's Striking Distance Studios is putting the finishing touches on the sci-fi survival-horror title, polishing it ahead of its release date, but is apparently engaging in crunch culture to do so. Besides deleting the tweet, Schofield has yet to respond to the criticism.
The gaming industry's practice of crunch culture has grown increasingly controversial. Some studio heads have spoken out in favor of crunch culture, while others have criticized it as exploiting workers. After all, while studio heads and directors may be more than willing to work excessive hours to meet deadlines, the same may not be true for the developers working for them. Yet, these developers may feel that they need to engage in crunch culture or else miss out on things like promotions, bonuses, and general career advancement. This is why Schofield's comment about "nobody's forcing us" has been one of the bigger points of contention - even if employees aren't technically "forced" to work these hours, they basically still are because of how abstaining may impact their career.
The criticism of crunch culture has resulted in a small shift in recent years, with some studios flat-out refusing to engage in it. This has seen big, blockbuster games like Horizon Forbidden West delayed, as well as changes made in games to avoid overworking employees. For example, Insomniac Games changed its plans for the Doc Ock boss fight in Spider-Man to avoid having to crunch.
In the meantime, other studios have promised to avoid crunch culture for their upcoming projects. Naughty Dog reportedly made The Last of Us Part 1 with no crunch time, and it's been promised that The Witcher 4 will be made with no crunch either. It's clear that there's still a long way to go when it comes to crunch culture in game development, but progress is being made.
The Callisto Protocol launches December 2 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
