LinkedIn usually feels like a swamp of web3 hype, dusty resumes, and relentless subscription pitches, but every so often something worthwhile surfaces. Recently, a candid discussion unfolded among seasoned developers from Remedy, Ubisoft, and Naughty Dog about a topic that’s long cast a shadow over the industry: crunch, or the dreaded cycle of excessive overtime that can wear down even the toughest teams.
The conversation is peppered with the kind of insider talk you’d expect—mentions of pipelines and workflows that shape how games come together—but it avoids the tired narrative that crunch is just the price passionate creatives pay for their craft. Instead, these voices focus on crunch as a systemic issue, embedded in how projects are planned and managed. This isn’t about romanticizing burnout; it’s about identifying the structural pressures that make crunch so common, and how studios are starting to move away from it.
There’s a sense that the old days of near-constant grind are fading, replaced by more sustainable approaches that consider the wellbeing of developers as central to a project’s success. While we’ve still got a way to go, conversations like this show that some of the industry’s biggest studios are taking the problem seriously and willing to reflect openly on its roots.
Source: rockpapershotgun.com
