With studios under pressure and facing new challenges due to COVID-19, there have been more than a few reports of crunch and unhealthy working practices across the industry. Recently, an anonymous Respawn staffer posted a review on Glassdoor, warning of staff having to work extremely long hours in order to keep up with Apex Legends‘ release cycle. As a result, the game’s director has had to respond personally.
Reports of Lockdown Crunch Rampant at Respawn
“I feel extremely stressed and burnt out trying to keep our seasonal releases on the same aggressive timeline as pre-shelter,” writes the anonymous Glassdoor review; “I currently work 12 to 13 hours a day and there is no separation between my home and work life. We have no idea how to do a live service project, which means poor planning decisions and no sizing of work, means we actually have very little idea of how much we can accomplish in a given month.”
Exacerbating this problem, the anonymous staffer claimed that Respawn had paid no attention to the health of its employees. “I am so burned out that I am considering leaving without a next job to go to just so mentally I can be in a better place,” ends the review. This extremely critical post attracted a great deal of attention on social media. As a result, it prompted a statement from Apex Legends Game Director Chad Grenier.
“We certainly didn’t have the tools, tech, or systems in place to make a smooth transition to going from several hundred person team on the same campus to a completely remote studio,” he admits, in the response. He goes on to claim that he had told staff every day to; “only work as much as they can,” and claims that other benefits have been put in place for staff. These reportedly include things such as; unlimited paid time off for those suffering physically or mentally, flexible working hours, and pay to cover increased energy/internet bills.
Grenier: Respawn Has “Everyone’s Best Interest in Mind”
Grenier also claims that Respawn and EA would be happy to delay their release schedule if necessary. In fact, he revealed the reason behind the two-week delay at the end of Apex Legends Season 4. According to Grenier, this delay was because they didn’t want to force staff to crunch Season 5. “They’re absolutely right in how they felt,” he said, speaking of the anonymous Glassdoor reviewer; “and they were clearly working too much, despite being told it was OK to miss their deadlines. The problem is not with the intent of Respawn’s leadership, we’ve got everyone’s best interest in mind.”
“Everyone wants to fix that bug, finish that cool new character, or get that new gamemode up and running,” he went on to state; “and will crunch themselves unknowingly to get it done. That’s how dedicated this team is, they’re amazing. Because of this, all of us leaders on the team have learned to better look for the signs, check-in more regularly with the developers, and push features back proactively after reading the signals, instead of waiting for someone to raise their hand.”
Hopefully, this assessment of the studio is actually correct. Previous reports from Respawn have indicated that the studio has prioritised employee health over profits. Back in 2019, Respawn CEO Vince Zampella said that the studio consciously chose to update Apex Legends less frequently. This was despite the enormous success the game got at launch. According to Zampella, the senior staff wanted to ensure that they didn’t put staff under too much strain.