Striking Distance Studios’ CEO posts, then deletes, a tweet thought by some to promote crunch culture

Striking Distance Studios’ founder Glen Schofield has deleted a tweet deemed by some to have promoted “crunch” culture in games development.

In a tweet posted earlier today, Schofield – whose team is currently working on the upcoming sci-fi horror, The Callisto Protocol – talked about working 12-15 hours a day, six-seven days a week, and working over lunch and dinner, justifying it by saying “you do it because you love it”.

“I only talked about the game during an event,” Schofield said in the since deleted tweet. “We [are] working six-seven days a week, nobody’s forcing us.

“Exhausted, tired, covid, but we’re working,” he continues. “Bugs, glitches, perf fixes. One last pass through audio. 12-15 hour days. This is gaming. Hard work. Lunch, dinner working. You do it cause ya luv it.”

Journalist Jason Schrierer took a screenshot of the tweet ahead of its deletion, adding:

“This, from a studio head, is crunch culture defined. Of course nobody is ‘forced’ to work insane hours. But imagine the reduced bonuses and lack of promotion opportunities if you don’t? ‘You do it because you love it’ .Weaponized passion.This is why people burn out of gaming.

“Such a weird coincidence how the guy bragging about how his team works 6-7 days a week for 12-15 hours a day because they love it also happens to be the guy who controls all their salaries, titles, and current employment status, ” he added in a later tweet.

In related news, David Cage recently responded to allegations of unhealthy studio culture and inappropriate behavior at Quantic Dream, which he previously described as a “smear campaign”.

“I don’t think we had an aggressive attitude,” he said. “When you’re accused of things that go against everything you believe in, everything you’ve done in your life, it hurts. It went beyond just attacking the studio culture.