Ah, I understand now.
To be fair, extreme crunch is an industry wide problem. I read on ResetEra that pretty much just Nintendo brings in whole other teams to help with development instead of forcing people to work obscene amounts of overtime. I haven’t verified that so I’m not sure if that’s true. If someone wants to put their body and health on the line (e.g. Masahiro Sakaurai), that’s their choice, not mine. Personally, I’m perfectly happy with waiting for a game. I would prefer people not voluntarily do that and I definitely don’t want employers and contractors imposing mandatory overtime (which is bullshit regardless of its paid) on employees who ultimately fear reprisal if they don’t tow the line. I work in IT, and I’m glad I don’t work in the video game industry if only for the horror stories I’ve read.
Additionally, I kind of feel like I’m part of the problem. I don’t stop buying these games, similar to how I don’t stop buying certain electronics even though it’s apparently a fucking nightmare at Foxconn in China. Still, I don’t know if widespread boycotting of a game from a company that treats employees and contractors poorly will ever send the right message. Even if we all plainly say, “Stop being dicks to your developers or we’ll stop buying your games,” will companies take that seriously or will they blame the product which, in a way, is blaming the developers?
I’ve read that developers should unionize, and I just don’t have enough information to know how feasible this is.