2019 - Crunch Can Never Be The Answer!
2020 - Crunch Is The Answer!

El Pit wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 11:58:
2019 - Crunch Can Never Be The Answer!
2020 - Crunch Is The Answer!

Captain Crunch is the answer. Mmmmm....

The workers can thank Sony for mandating an Xmas release.

True, going back on their word stating they wouldn't do this makes them out to look like total D-bags ,....- but seriously, - the way the world has turned for the past 9 months or so , these workers are not exactly getting treated unfairly.
It seems like they have had it pretty good this entire time.
I think there's about 10 million people in the world right now who would love to be under this short bit of crunch requirement right now. ( Overtime pay & 10% of the company profit ) Wow , that's good stuff.

Christmas....new consoles....yeah yeah yeah.

The real reason is Cyberpunk 2020 the RPG. The oracle has spoken....it has been preordained.

Bumpy wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 13:13:
The workers can thank Sony for mandating an Xmas release.

This pretty much sums it up.

Primalchrome wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 14:50:
Christmas....new consoles....yeah yeah yeah.

The real reason is Cyberpunk 2020 the RPG. The oracle has spoken....it has been preordained.

This is the way...yeah yeah yeah.

I would totaly support these workers if they did a strike or work action. its not like the can fire the whole team and bring a new one up to speed by christmass

El Pit wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 11:58:
2019 - Crunch Can Never Be The Answer!
2020 - Crunch Is The Answer!

This is my shocked face.

Plus crunch for only a month AND get OT? Please, I've seen some studios, games end up in crunch that last 4+ months of development with no OT. Clearly the industry is much better then it was 5+ yrs ago. As long as they are getting paid for the OT this is a non-issue and story.

GothicWizard wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 17:07:

El Pit wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 11:58:
2019 - Crunch Can Never Be The Answer!
2020 - Crunch Is The Answer!

This is my shocked face.

Plus crunch for only a month AND get OT? Please, I've seen some studios, games end up in crunch that last 4+ months of development with no OT. Clearly the industry is much better then it was 5+ yrs ago. As long as they are getting paid for the OT this is a non-issue and story.

Wasn't it RDR2 that had like 6 months of crunch.

GothicWizard wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 17:07:
Please, I've seen some studios, games end up in crunch that last 4+ months of development with no OT. Clearly the industry is much better then it was 5+ yrs ago. As long as they are getting paid for the OT this is a non-issue and story.

Most game developers are on Salary... not Hourly... which is why there is not OT pay available. However, they are usually promised some "bonus"... but we've seen how that goes, like with Gearbox.

Honestly, taking any IT Professional job for Salary instead of Hourly is kind of a dumb move ...unless the salary is way above the industry average. There's almost always "Off Hours" work to be done at some point... might as well get paid for it. Now, where I work, we mainly flex "off hours" work to avoid OT as much as possible... but if it's over 40 hours for the week, we go into OT.

wtf_man wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 18:27:

GothicWizard wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 17:07:
Please, I've seen some studios, games end up in crunch that last 4+ months of development with no OT. Clearly the industry is much better then it was 5+ yrs ago. As long as they are getting paid for the OT this is a non-issue and story.

Most game developers are on Salary... not Hourly... which is why there is not OT pay available. However, they are usually promised some "bonus"... but we've seen how that goes, like with Gearbox.

Honestly, taking any IT Professional job for Salary instead of Hourly is kind of a dumb move ...unless the salary is way above the industry average. There's almost always "Off Hours" work to be done at some point... might as well get paid for it. Now, where I work, we mainly flex "off hours" work to avoid OT as much as possible... but if it's over 40 hours for the week, we go into OT.

It specifically says they will be paid overtime.

Badowski wrote, elaborating that this meant “your typical amount of work and one day of the weekend.” The extra work would be paid, as required by Polish labor laws. Many other video game studios don’t pay for overtime.

I was replying to GothicWizard's comment about most game studios... not specifically what CD PROJECT RED is doing.

I worked on a project where I crunched for well over half a year. The last 2 months were 16 hour days, which was especially annoying since the company didn't allow you to log more then 12 hours per day [ because of some legal limit to daily hours IIRC ].

What did I get in the end? A reprimand for looking bad on security review for working odd hours... by the same person assigning me the daily tasks... who would leave at 5 and give me a full days work to do by next morning (we all started at 9 daily).

Lesson learned : don't do overtime.
If they demand it, demand compensation.

Another thing I noticed was that when management leaves at 5, they don't see people working anymore, and they act like as if everyone is done working at the same time.
By not doing overtime simply by request (which is quickly out of mind) they are forced to be aware of it by authorizing the compensation.

I don't mean onesey twosey rare and incidental overtime, I mean the 'this is how things are' overtime.

-scheherazade

wtf_man wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 18:27:
Most game developers are on Salary... not Hourly... which is why there is not OT pay available. However, they are usually promised some "bonus"... but we've seen how that goes, like with Gearbox.

Honestly, taking any IT Professional job for Salary instead of Hourly is kind of a dumb move ...unless the salary is way above the industry average. There's almost always "Off Hours" work to be done at some point... might as well get paid for it. Now, where I work, we mainly flex "off hours" work to avoid OT as much as possible... but if it's over 40 hours for the week, we go into OT.

I'm on a salary but I get paid overtime if I book it, so I don't see your point. A salaried position does not preclude you from claiming OT.

IgWannA wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 19:59:

wtf_man wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 18:27:
Most game developers are on Salary... not Hourly... which is why there is not OT pay available. However, they are usually promised some "bonus"... but we've seen how that goes, like with Gearbox.

Honestly, taking any IT Professional job for Salary instead of Hourly is kind of a dumb move ...unless the salary is way above the industry average. There's almost always "Off Hours" work to be done at some point... might as well get paid for it. Now, where I work, we mainly flex "off hours" work to avoid OT as much as possible... but if it's over 40 hours for the week, we go into OT.

I'm on a salary but I get paid overtime if I book it, so I don't see your point. A salaried position does not preclude you from claiming OT.

In the U.S. software engineers are exempt from overtime regulations. The company can pay it but it's not law. I've been in the industry many years, don't know of anyone around here that gets paid OT. But frankly I appreciate being able to work whenever I want and not keeping my time or punchclocking whatever. My particular company can get really busy if there is a hard deadline coming up but crunch is mostly not a thing for us thankfully. But you submit your own estimates for work, so if you're way over what you thought it would be you better have a good explanation or be willing to work some late nights to catch yourself up. Not required, but I'm sure it reflects on your performance if you never get anything done when you say you will.

wtf_man wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 19:30:
I was replying to GothicWizard's comment about most game studios... not specifically what CD PROJECT RED is doing.

oopsie

I wonder what constitutes "the team" for that profit sharing exactly? QA? Support staff - cleaners, receptionists, et al.?

Cutter wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 23:27:
I wonder what constitutes "the team" for that profit sharing exactly? QA? Support staff - cleaners, receptionists, et al.?

My guess would be all non-outsourced game team members (engineers, producers, art leads, directors). QA/Artists gets the short straw like always as they are usually contracted but they also avoid crunch as their contract usually stipulates the work they will deliver and the hours they have allotted. Support staff usually aren’t involved in crunch.

Basically anyone on salary paid by the company itself.

Sepharo wrote on Sep 30, 2020, 20:25:

In the U.S. software engineers are exempt from overtime regulations. The company can pay it but it's not law.

That is seriously fucked up.

Also, did everyone miss that 10% profit margin bonus? In the EU these kinds of things are usually stipulated by contract, or addendum to a contract. So that's not an empty promise.