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Former 343i Employee speaks out about Halo Infinite (Crunch, game over ambitious, cut content...) and Schreier has a story about 343i coming up

Fucking "crunch" again. Seriously who gives a fuck. In any other profession its called overtime, we all do it, your not special.

I don't work anything less than 12 hour days, do I want a chuffty badge for it? No you just get on with it.
Chuffty badge 😅 I like that, I'm gonna use that more in conversation.
 

Miles708

Member
Fucking "crunch" again. Seriously who gives a fuck. In any other profession its called overtime, we all do it, your not special.

I don't work anything less than 12 hour days, do I want a chuffty badge for it? No you just get on with it.

Your work is shit, so the solution is not making it better for you, but equally shit for everyone else.
Classy.
 

clarky

Gold Member
Your work is shit, so the solution is not making it better for you, but equally shit for everyone else.
Classy.
Eh? when did I say my work was shit, I like my job, I just do a lot of hours. Like a lot of people.

If you don't like what you re doing it's fairly simple just quit.
 

Loope

Member
Eh? when did I say my work was shit, I like my job, I just do a lot of hours. Like a lot of people.

If you don't like what you re doing it's fairly simple just quit.
That's not normal, i'm sorry. I also love my job and sometimes i have to do these crazy stints. Ignoring that is bad practice doesn't really make you look good or a fantastic worker either. Either is you fucking up or management, if you need to work overtime, something is not right.

I find it very hard to justify especially in this business line (gaming), people can wait for the game, that or grow up and behave like adults, because everyone knows it's not the 12 year olds taking to the forums, twitter etc. to cry and complain because a game is late, leading to this crazy crunch stints easily avoidable.
 
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OrionNebula

Member
here we go batman GIF
We’re on page 4. It’s still going 🙂


OT : Interesting, in a way, but what truly interests me about Halo Infinite is the re-reveal, a little over a month away. My opinion will be based on that
 
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clarky

Gold Member
That's not normal, i'm sorry. I also love my job and sometimes i have to do these crazy stints. Ignoring that is bad practice doesn't really make you look good or a fantastic worker either. Either is you fucking up or management, if you need to work overtime, something is not right.

I find it very hard to justify especially in this business line (gaming), people can wait for the game, that or grow up and behave like adults, because everyone knows it's not the 12 year olds taking to the forums, twitter etc. to cry and complain because a game is late, leading to this crazy crunch stints easily avoidable.
I get what your saying but in my experience any job with deadlines, has crazy periods at work. If you don't have deadlines then thing would just drag on forever.

Its not exclusive to the games industry, its the private sector in general. Would I love to work 8 hours a day 4 days a week? of course but I'd be skint.
 

Loope

Member
I get what your saying but in my experience any job with deadlines, has crazy periods at work. If you don't have deadlines then thing would just drag on forever.

Its not exclusive to the games industry, its the private sector in general. Would I love to work 8 hours a day 4 days a week? of course but I'd be skint.
Yes, i know. I work in the construction business, so it's fucking crazy at times. But with gaming, to be honest, i have a hard time to accept this kind of stuff in my head. If a games needs delaying, just do it. In the end if it's not up to par, is the devs that get the short end of the stick either way. I'm by no means telling that they shouldn't work overtime at all, sometimes is necessary, other times is just covering up shit and ultimately brings really bad results for you and the final product.
 

Bragr

Banned
Newsflash Game development On most triple AAA high profile franchises fucking sucks For a number of the employees at a studio.
That's what they sign up for though, that's the price you pay to ship a product you can be proud of forever. I can't imagine anyone joining a game studio expecting normal hours.
 

Zimmy68

Member
I find it funny that people hate this guy, he just reports what people tell him and this seems to hurt feelings.

It would be far more interesting if Schreier was found to be making things up.

In terms of 'crunch', if it keeps happening continuously, project after project - I see it as a failure of top level management and of course it happens in many industries.

Top level management should either be setting more realistic deadlines or doing far more to remove tedious processes so their teams can be as productive as possible.
It doesn't give me hurt feeling it just makes the guy into a one trick pony.
When you see his name in a story the eye rolls start immediately.
There has to be some other topic to talk about.
Do people really care how hard devs in the video game world work to finish a project?
Don't you think the CGI teams are over worked trying to complete scenes for a blockbuster movie to make a release date?
Do I have to hear about every single one?
 

Bragr

Banned
People ask too much of Halo. Its best days are in the past. It can't be exactly what it was, because the market has changed, gamers have changed. So Halo must also change. If the new concept doesn't hit it with today's audience, then they need to scratch it all and do a full reboot. Only don't put 343 in charge of it if they don't succeed this time.
Exactly, you could sense it with Halo Reach, Bungie had exhausted the franchise and done everything they could with it.

Halo needs some sort of God of War/Breath of the Wild reboot, which will never happen with 343. They are building Halo to continue the old traditions, like the Gears games did on Xbox One, it's conservative corporate decision-making that doesn't take into account that players have already played these games so much that the Halo and Gears gameplay started to feel old 10 years ago. Publishers seem to think you can just bash together a big studio and continue the same old franchises.

Miyamoto said once that it's the new employees that seem to latch onto the old franchises and want to build the same thing because they grew up with them and are scared to mess them up, while the older guys are tired of the same old shit and want something new. These new studios that Microsoft built are filled with guys who inherit massive legendary franchises but are too scared to do anything with them.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Seems like out of all the crunch reports only one studio had major quality control prowess, Naughty Dog. The rest just collapse and the results are obvious to the public by their products.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
Well yeah, you cant take six years to make a game, on top of missing your launch date and severely hindering the launch of your parent companies new console without something being very wrong at the studio. Im glad they are able to take the time to fix the game, but the fact that this was supposed to be the ONE AND ONLY launch/launch window game for the new xbox and it was delayed an entire year, after being in development for so long, is pretty embarassing. I expect alot of shake ups at 343, this cant happen again.
 
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Papacheeks

Banned
Well yeah, you cant take six years to make a game, on top of missing your launch date and severely hindering the launch of your parent companies new console without something being very wrong at the studio. Im glad they are able to take the time to fix the game, but the fact that this was supposed to be the ONE AND ONLY launch/launch window game for the new xbox and it was delayed an entire year, after being in development for so long, is pretty embarassing. I expect alot of shake ups at 343, this cant happen again.

There's that age old saying, there is no such thing as a bad student, but a bad teacher. 343 has super talented people, but leadership of the studio and overall XBox Game studios has had issues since xb360 days. I don't know if Matt Booty has helped right the ship? But he has his work cut out if he reports to phil. If you want to turn 343 into a powerhouse of efficiency than having the correct people there and people behind the developers is crucial in making those corrections.

Seems though Playground, inxile, coalition seem to be fine. But they also outside of inXile the rest have been making the same kind of game for past 7+ years. So time will tell on how their new projects pan out.
 

ikbalCO

Member
The Schreier cycle; find a handful of disgruntled employees, present their opinion as fact, profit.
schreir when he finds a "former employee"..
1*HLo8nBPop3IpjEPYjKl1HQ.jpeg


jokes aside, I seriously can not take this journalist parody of a guy any more. i am pretty sure whenever he is writing a story about crunch in gaming, he thinks there'll be movies about how great he was like spotlight and the post etc.

what a weasel.
 

Cravis

Member
Well yeah, you cant take six years to make a game, on top of missing your launch date and severely hindering the launch of your parent companies new console without something being very wrong at the studio. Im glad they are able to take the time to fix the game, but the fact that this was supposed to be the ONE AND ONLY launch/launch window game for the new xbox and it was delayed an entire year, after being in development for so long, is pretty embarassing. I expect alot of shake ups at 343, this cant happen again.
This right here.

343i is the very last company where the employees should complain about crunch. They had 6 years and a target date to hit for being the showcase for a next gen console. They fucked up royally. They should be happy they’re still employed. And now they want to complain about “crunch?” Hell no morons you better be glad MS gave you another year and didn’t just hand everyone pink slips and bring in another team to salvage your screw up.

Entitled idiots.
 

Derktron

Banned
I swear they do this to smear these companies every time they come out with these big games. This guy is starting to piss me off and looks like any privileged person acts as. Lesson 101, work is not fair. Try working in retail for the same amount of hours and not being able to do anything about it, you have two choices, either quit or just continue on, shit I would love to do what they do, sit down for hours on end and earn a salary, I'm currently in college and I still don't have a salary job as of yet and I work many hours. Try working those same hours that they complain about and not get the amount of money these complainers get. Now if they work their hours, and don't get the right amount of money they deserve then sure I would agree with these articles.

But if you think you are being overworked, you also have choices, complain to HR, quit your job, or just say no, I always get asked to work over the time I need to do, and I keep my stance on that and say no. So if you can't say no and use your voice, then it's not the job problem, it's a you problem. I said what I said and will not respond to anyone else's comments.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
There's that age old saying, there is no such thing as a bad student, but a bad teacher. 343 has super talented people, but leadership of the studio and overall XBox Game studios has had issues since xb360 days. I don't know if Matt Booty has helped right the ship? But he has his work cut out if he reports to phil. If you want to turn 343 into a powerhouse of efficiency than having the correct people there and people behind the developers is crucial in making those corrections.

Seems though Playground, inxile, coalition seem to be fine. But they also outside of inXile the rest have been making the same kind of game for past 7+ years. So time will tell on how their new projects pan out.
I think a larger issue is that if a console cycle lasts only 7-8 years, and it takes almost that much time to develop a single triple a game, then something needs to change regarding efficiency and the size and scope of these games, or the console cycle needs to last longer so these developers can make more than one or two games for it.

i wish more games were like spiderman miles morales, or uncharted the lost legacy, those are smaller, more compact titles that are in many ways, better than their big, 30 plus hour long siblings. I feel like medium sized games thrived on the 360, if they come back in a big way, then publishers will be able to squeeze a lot more out of these consoles
 

Shmunter

Member
I think a larger issue is that if a console cycle lasts only 7-8 years, and it takes almost that much time to develop a single triple a game, then something needs to change regarding efficiency and the size and scope of these games, or the console cycle needs to last longer so these developers can make more than one or two games for it.

i wish more games were like spiderman miles morales, or uncharted the lost legacy, those are smaller, more compact titles that are in many ways, better than their big, 30 plus hour long siblings. I feel like medium sized games thrived on the 360, if they come back in a big way, then publishers will be able to squeeze a lot more out of these consoles
Unfortunately the landscape has changed with GaaS, open worlds, looter shooters etc. people’s mentality is off how long can I play this for.

I was stunned how big Last Of Us 2 was. Linear, single player only. What choice did they have?

Yeah it sucks.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
Unfortunately the landscape has changed with GaaS, open worlds, looter shooters etc. people’s mentality is off how long can I play this for.

I was stunned how big Last Of Us 2 was. Linear, single player only. What choice did they have?

Yeah it sucks.
Yeah, i realize the market had changed. All those people leaving giant bomb made me look at the industry as a whole recently. And i realized, as im nearing 30, that outside of some niche circles, the industry is no longer trying to appeal to me. Im not the type of person who is going to play a lot of multiplayer games, or buy battlepasses, or buy skins or loot crates, but i realize thats where the money is now, and thats what younger people enjoy. Ill still be able to get my linear single player games or the occasional open world rpg, but i know those are the exception now rather than the rule.

lol we didnt realize how good we had it on the ps360 in terms of solid, linear, single player games
 

The Alien

Banned
Cover blown. So former 343i employee...now working at Certain Affinity. Hmmmm.. 🤔

Thanks for narrowing that down for us. Shouldn't be too hard to identify this guy and ensure he never works in the industry again.
 

Shmunter

Member
Yeah, i realize the market had changed. All those people leaving giant bomb made me look at the industry as a whole recently. And i realized, as im nearing 30, that outside of some niche circles, the industry is no longer trying to appeal to me. Im not the type of person who is going to play a lot of multiplayer games, or buy battlepasses, or buy skins or loot crates, but i realize thats where the money is now, and thats what younger people enjoy. Ill still be able to get my linear single player games or the occasional open world rpg, but i know those are the exception now rather than the rule.

lol we didnt realize how good we had it on the ps360 in terms of solid, linear, single player games
This is why Sony is the only twinkle in my eye. I don’t see it as a negative them making longer SP games as long as it’s all quality and no filler.

I am turned off by GaaS and most open worlds.
 

schaft0620

Member
I've been working 15 hour days the last 2 weeks. The worst I've ever done is about 20-22 hour days for a solid week.

Fucking weak bitches can't do a little overtime. Get paid, buy assets, build wealth, and shut the fuck up.

- You don't have kids
- This isn't manageable long term.
- You aren't getting paid enough because actually having money gives you stuff to do.
- That's not a "little over time" it's illegal.
- You have no power in your position at work because if you did you would work 8/9 hours and make the same salary.
 
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jigglet

Banned
- You don't have kids
- This isn't manageable long term.
- You aren't getting paid enough because actually having money gives you stuff to do.
- That's not a "little over time" it's illegal.
- You have no power in your position at work because if you did you would work 8/9 hours and make the same salary.

Who said it needs to be sustainable. Just long enough to build an asset base.

It's like you guys want to live in this wonderland where there is no such thing as a social divide. People accumulate wealth for a reason. Yes some are born into a silver spoon, but many others work for it.

Work. Invest. Live. Life is a big ball of shit, you can choose to do it all at once up front, or deal with it at the end of your days when you realise it's too late. Live. Work. Invest. If that order suits you better, then who am I to argue. The problem is it's kind of hard when you're 65, but the good thing about that problem is it ain't my problem.
 
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Miles708

Member
Eh? when did I say my work was shit, I like my job, I just do a lot of hours. Like a lot of people.

If you don't like what you re doing it's fairly simple just quit.

I've used stong words for theatrical effect, I apologize.

I get your point but mandatory overtime is mandatory. Wanting a better work-life balance should not be a bad thing. Why this is even a debate.
 

Andodalf

Banned
Who said it needs to be sustainable. Just long enough to build an asset base.

It's like you guys want to live in this wonderland where there is no such thing as a social divide. People accumulate wealth for a reason. Yes some are born into a silver spoon, but many others work for it.

Work. Invest. Live. Life is a big ball of shit, you can choose to do it all at once up front, or deal with it at the end of your days when you realise it's too late. Live. Work. Invest. If that order suits you better, then who am I to argue. The problem is it's kind of hard when you're 65, but the good thing about that problem is it ain't my problem.

Choosing to be misrable for part of your life is a bad Strat. You can live and work at the same time my guy. You never have to live like that
 

schaft0620

Member
Who said it needs to be sustainable. Just long enough to build an asset base.

It's like you guys want to live in this wonderland where there is no such thing as a social divide. People accumulate wealth for a reason. Yes some are born into a silver spoon, but many others work for it.

Work. Invest. Live. Life is a big ball of shit, you can choose to do it all at once up front, or deal with it at the end of your days when you realise it's too late. Live. Work. Invest. If that order suits you better, then who am I to argue. The problem is it's kind of hard when you're 65, but the good thing about that problem is it ain't my problem.
 

Mr Moose

Member
"This has led to some things I've made over the years that no one will probably ever see."
Skyboxes?

If they knew the engine is a bit shit, they should use a different one instead of trying to fix their current one, maybe.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
I've used stong words for theatrical effect, I apologize.

I get your point but mandatory overtime is mandatory. Wanting a better work-life balance should not be a bad thing. Why this is even a debate.
I've been working as an electrician on F35 hangars and 2 fuel farms all on the same military base for the last 6 years, towards the end of every project, we've had to ramp up production to get it delivered. This "crunch" shit isn't relegated to only videogames, it's part of any production job that has timelines/deadlines to meet. Things pop up last minute that MUST be addressed. And yes, it sucks, pulling 60 hours weeks for a few months, but I know I could quit and go get another job anytime as my field is high demand, but I(and I assume most production-based workers) like to see my work finished through and feel proud when it's all done. It's not the bosses fault completely that we have to put in the extra time, it's the fact that things(specs, requirements, expectations) shift in the process of making something and they can't all be planned for ahead of time. It's just a natural part of the job. You or others can get mad at it, it won't change anything. The only way you could mitigate ANY kind of crunch is to literally get rid of delivery dates. Which would then lead to HUGE production problems.
 
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jigglet

Banned
Choosing to be misrable for part of your life is a bad Strat. You can live and work at the same time my guy. You never have to live like that

You don't have to live like that. As I said everyone has a choice. I choose to do it all up front. It hits me hard but I accept it as a trade off for the money.

If there's a better way, do it. People whining about crunch claim there is a better way but obviously can't achieve it if they're whining. It's nice to want things.

I am in enterprise software. Boring crap. My god it's boring, but it pays really well. You know what's not boring? Video games. Video games are fun. WAY more fun than enterprise software. Therefore there's more people wanting to do it. More supply. Therefore...as the law of supply and demand dictates...lower pay. Fun vs. money, pick one. You don't get to choose the wrong side of the equation as far as money goes then bitch about it.

I too want the most desirable, fun job in the world AND the money. But oh shit...something something real world.
 
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If this wasn't an indication that 343 were having problems...

halo-infinite-craig-hero.jpg


Then I don't know what to tell you.
The guy says in the interview that many engine features we're not implemented at the time and that was the reason for the whole "Craig" meme going viral last year. So now the same people taking this interview to bash Infinite even more are ignoring that the same dev gave a reason for last year's E3 demo being so underwhelming.

Bookmarking the thread.

It'll be fun to read after Infinite comes out a 7/10 and everyone loses their shit like it was a surprise to them.
Infinite will be a solid 8/10. We haven't seen the story. We haven't seen forge. We haven't seen anything related to multiplayer. I think the funnier part will be seeing all the people making their judgements off a year old demo having to admit they were wrong.
 

Elios83

Member
Schreier trying to damage 343i reputation here. Good luck finding a reputation to damage.
LOL :messenger_grinning_sweat:

Bookmarking the thread.

It'll be fun to read after Infinite comes out a 7/10 and everyone loses their shit like it was a surprise to them.

Even if not a surprise given that it's clear that the game has been through a serious development hell and when that happens history tells that the best outcome is something barely decent, the fact that what used to be the premium platform defining IP for Xbox has been dragged down by 343i so much is absolutely noteworthy and Microsoft should do something about it once they're finally done with this game.
 

Maxwell Jacob Friedman

leads to fear. Fear leads to xbox.
I love how the guy admits we are crunching but literally says "this game wont be it chief" as well lol even crunching cant get 343 to make a decent halo game
 

FireFly

Member
I love how the guy admits we are crunching but literally says "this game wont be it chief" as well lol even crunching cant get 343 to make a decent halo game
According to the translation, he said it would be "great". But I guess we are using the modern internet standard where "decent" starts at 9.5/10?
 
People forget all too easily that Halo 2 was nearly a disaster and was scrapped and started over on just over a year from release. Halo CE development was also a massive crunch. So let's not pretend that Bungie leadership was something to be put on a pedestal. I see a lot of people mocking 343 leadership. Which perhaps it's deserved, but great games can still emerge from chaos. Halo 2 is the perfect example of that.
 

Hendrick's

If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
It doesn't give me hurt feeling it just makes the guy into a one trick pony.
When you see his name in a story the eye rolls start immediately.
There has to be some other topic to talk about.
Do people really care how hard devs in the video game world work to finish a project?
Don't you think the CGI teams are over worked trying to complete scenes for a blockbuster movie to make a release date?
Do I have to hear about every single one?
He has burned all his bridges with devs at this point, so all he gets is disgruntled ex-employees talking to him.
 

supernova8

Banned
The team at 343 (especially the low-level employees) works very hard, and many of them have experienced working overtime until the early hours of the morning in the past few years. (Crunch confirmed :(
Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but it's almost as if someone thinks people working in the gaming industry should be exempt from late night overtime.

Firstly... fucking get over it because you work to deadlines and when deadlines have to be met (in any industry) people may need to stay behind to get it done.
Secondly... it's mostly like in the work contract that you signed... fucking get over it again..
Thirdly... fuck off Jason Screecher.
 
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