Xbox head defends Bethesda of Crunch accusations
Through a recent meeting between the employees of the brand Microsoft and Bethesda , the concern was addressed that some workers were suffering from the already known labor crunch. Given this, the Xbox Chief Game Studios , Matt Booty, assured that this is not possible and claiming that it can not only be attributed to Bethesda as is.
In a question and answers session, Booty was asked to address the medium report Kotaku that documented the problematic working conditions in Bethesda and Zenimax during development of Fallout 76 . His response was to make known that they were aware of it, but he emphasizes that the media are taking facts far back in time.
Here his statement:
The challenge with many of these articles is that they look back, sometimes quite back in time.
Also, he talked a little about the culture of Crunch:
Crunch culture is… if you go back 10 years ago, it is a bit unfair to put that in a single study. It was only part of the industry. I don’t say that to justify it, I just say it was part of how it worked in the industry. I literally slept under my desk at the beginning of my career. And we saw it as an honor badge.
Xbox said that overtime should only be limited to personal emotion and passion, and not a mandatory aspect. However, many Zenimax testers that did not have the explicit mandate of doing Crunch had worked overtime due to the social and professional pressure of their classmates.
The media documented crisis took place before Xbox acquired to Zenimax and Bethesda . But the report said that, after purchase, the company would not have intervened in any kind of changes to improve working conditions. And after accusations, they may take into account policy review to avoid unwanted crunch.