There is no doubt excitement behind the forthcoming Fortnite and Avengers crossover. However, as Thanos noted, “This day extracts a heavy toll,” as a troubling report has shown signs of harsh working conditions at Epic in lieu of the battle royale’s success.
A new report from Polygon showed that some employees are working pretty hard to keep up with Fortnite‘s incredible popularity. The outlet spoke to various employees speaking under anonymity and their stories do not paint a pretty picture. Some have said that they’re working 100-hour work weeks just to keep everything running with Fortnite. Immense pressure from the community isn’t helping matters either, according to one worker.
“The biggest problem is that we’re patching all the time. The executives are focused on keeping Fortnite popular for as long as possible, especially with all the new competition that’s coming in,” they said.
So just how bad do conditions get?
“I was working at least 12-hour days, seven days a week, for at least four or five months. A lot of that was having to stay at work till 3 or 4 in the morning,” they explained.
On top of that, treatment of contractors came into question if one “fails to meet critical release dates.” This led to many either being fired or quitting from stress. And it looks like their replacements came in with very little sympathy.
“One senior guy would say, ‘Just get more bodies.’ That’s what the contractors were called: bodies. And then when we’re done with them, we can just dispose of them. They can be replaced with fresh people who don’t have the toxic nature of being disgruntled,” according to one employee.
We’ve heard about mistreatment on this level before. Telltale Games, before its closure, reportedly gave employees terrible treatment while completing games. And similar reports circled around Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2, with some employees working multiple hours on end to finish its development.
It sounds like an argument for a union for game makers may come into fruition sooner rather than later. Let’s just hope that it has a lasting effect on how employees are treated.
