There is a colloquial term tossed around in almost every major video game publishing setting: "crunch." Tech journalist and author Jason Schreier tells WPR's "BETA" the phrase's near ubiquity in the billion dollar video game publishing industry should give everyone pause.
"You think of crunch, crunch time, it kind of sounds like, 'All right, this is it, the end of the thing. It's crunch time.' But in the games industry, it's actually not just at the end of a project when this will happen," he said. "Oftentimes you go through this kind of period of excessive overtime just to hit a normal deadline over the course of your project. And a lot of games companies actually build in a period of crunch into their schedule, like expecting everybody to work those extra hours."
It's the big question behind his second book on the video game industry, "Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry." Schreier's first book — "Blood, Sweat and Pixels" — shed a light on how popular video games are created. With "Press Reset" he is exploring the question of human cost in a notoriously churn and burn climate.
"The big question that I set out to ask is: Why is the video game industry so volatile and what kind of effect does that have on people in it?" he said.
The main volatility of this industry can be summed up by the lack of stability. With bottom lines impacting every independent and major studio, it's not uncommon to lose your job even after the launch of a successful game. This leads to a constant fear of layoffs or reassignments which require constant relocations to chase down the next job. There's also the severe burnout from a "crunch" culture that wipes away the prestige and glamour from a career creating and playing video games.
"It's a constant thing. It's a very hit driven industry. But it's not just that. It's also an industry full of wealth disparity," Schreier said. "There's a lot of money being made, but not a lot of money going to the people who actually make the games."
Unlike other entertainment entities, successful video games are reliant on a fruitful marriage of art and technology. They have to have the artistic sensibilities of film but are beholden to the ever-changing backend tech and changes in gaming trends throughout the years-long cycle of their development.
"The software has to be just constantly developed and fine-tuned and iterated upon. And that aspect of it requires a lot of engineers, a lot of designers, a lot of artists just throwing themselves at this game and working full time for a very long time," said Schreier.
Furthermore, while a video game is in this incubation period, it's subjected to the shifting winds of audience appetite and capricious investors. So, it's not unheard of for video game publishers to pull the plug on a game even if they've already sunk millions into it.
"The amount of money that you're spending on these things is not just all channeled into three months of shooting or whatever. It's more like years and years of paying people salaries. So it's easier to see why a game company might say, 'OK, do we really want to commit another two years to this project or should we just cut our losses?'"
"Press Reset" shares the personal stories of creators, engineers and game producers who have spent a lifetime involved in what appears to outsiders as a dream job. Some of these characters intersect at various points of their career as they all bounce from job to job and publisher to publisher.
Some follow a vicious cycle where they break away from the big — AAA — game publishers like EA and 2K to launch their own smaller companies only to inevitably have to sell their game back to another AAA publisher to distribute it and make money.
Even Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Curt Schilling learned the hard way that large amounts of capital isn't all you need to launch a successful video game company. Schreier recounts and dissects Shilling's attempt to parlay his personal fortune he earned from baseball into the ultimately doomed studio, 38 Games (named after his jersey number).
"He always loved games. He always loved specifically MMORPGs, which are big worlds, open world games full of people, massively multiplayer online games. And when he finished his career, he said, 'Hey, I'm going to take on World of Warcraft and make the next big MMO,'" said Schreier.
Schilling failed to secure any outside investors for his desired MMO — or massively multiplayer online — game, Copernicus, and ended up making a deal with the state of Rhode Island's Economic Development Corporation for a guaranteed $75 million loan. In 2011, shortly after Schilling relocated his company to the state, the loan came under scrutiny by newly elected Gov. Lincoln Chaffee and the state halted payments.
"When you don't know anything about game development, and you start a company, and you think you're going to take on one of the biggest games in the world, things are probably not going to go well for you," said Schreier.
Once again, a large staff of game creators were left to ponder their future after they were abruptly laid off in May 2012 when 38 Studios filed for bankruptcy.
Schreier's book questions if the industry as a whole is sustainable. He ponders the solution of unionization similar to the crews working on feature films.
"In North America, there are no unions in the games industry. And it's kind of shocking to see that. It's kind of strange that that hasn't happened yet. Obviously film is the easiest comparison," said Schreier. "They can ensure themselves certain protections, making sure they get paid for every hour and making sure they get proper credit for their work, that sort of thing, in a way that game developers, game makers have not been able to do. I'm surprised that unions have not started to pop up in the games industry yet, but I think they will at some point."
For his part, Schreier says even after reporting on how problematic the environment is for game creation, that he's still a fan of playing. He says most creators don't want people to stop enjoying their games.
"I think that if you ask a game developer or even someone who feels like they really sacrificed a lot to make these games, I think most of them are proud of their work and want it to be enjoyed," he said. "They don't want all that crunch and hard work to go for not. So, I don't think many people would want the player to feel guilty about any of these games."