This Is How They Get Away With It:" Former NetherRealm Studios Contract Devs Reveal a Troubling Studio Culture

[LawAbidingCitizen]

"That CEO leak meeting was scary," said one source present about the meeting. "We were unfairly blamed, almost dragged out of our chairs for an 'immediate meeting to discuss NDA issues.' His tone was absolutely unprofessional." Another source called the meeting "demoralizing."


"It was just awful. I felt like we were just corralled into a room to be screamed at," said another source present at the meeting. "It was disturbing. People were upset and crying and I was really shocked that it happened."


"There were a bunch of leads and full-time employees just standing there with their arms crossed, looking angry, and the head of the studio yelled at us about these leaks and basically told us we've lost millions of dollars in marketing." Our sources who were present at the meeting also recall that Himmerick "pitted us against each other basically saying, 'You guys should be investigating this, you know, one of you guys did this.'" One of our sources present recalls Himmerick telling the group, "one of your co-workers in this room is literally fucking you right now."


"It was humiliating to get grouped in a room and get screamed at by the studio head Shaun Himmerick," recalls a third source. "We were threatened with legal action and being blacklisted in the industry." Two other sources claimed Himmerick threatened that a security team comprising FBI agents were investigating the leak, possibly as a fear tactic.


"What upset me [about the meeting] was that the permanent employees of NRS did not get the same talking-down to. The temporary workers were made as a scapegoat-we were treated like second-class citizens."

I'm not do sure I'm outraged by these stories. For one I don't think it's wrong for upper management to question and investigate temporary employees about losing millions of dollars. It hurts the company. It should be common sense permanent devs and staff are considered more trustworthy. They have careers thier and a lot of time and effort invested into the company. You don't put temp workers as permanent until they prove themselves in the industry and show promise at thier job. There work may not have stood out or made a huge impact in the final product or thier contributions may not have impacted the full game but just a small portion. There are 200+ devs making every facet of the game divided into small groups in many different stages and locations with management above each. In any job it's not common for temps to shine.
Dangling the carrot happens in almost every industry since it's common practice to motivate team members.

Let's not forget these are news articles and 99% of them not only blow things out of proportion but get key points wrong and dramatize details for spotlight. Then we have the possibility these couple individuals where just angry they didn't make the final team or get promoted.

Crunch time isn't anything new to the industry and it's part of the demand of video game deadlines, if you don't put in the time most employers will find other workers who can.

It's absolutely possible but a few articles isn't enough to convince me.

 

[kevkopdx]

To be fair though, the reason they forced themselves to work all that overtime and didn't talk to bosses about the BS happening with the namecalling and whatnot was directly because they wanted to get a full-time job at NRS. So they're more at fault than anyone. They were naive, they let themselves be used because they wanted to work there and now they're angry because of the abuse they suffered, the abuse they also forced upon themselves.

Contractors usually don’t have a ton of rights, they aren’t covered by labor laws and they can’t run to Human Resources when there’s an issue. They aren’t naive, and in this case seem to be underpaid and treated very poorly. It’s trashy. Not only that, but Illinois is an at will state, so there doesn’t have to be a reason to terminate even full time employees, let alone contractors who surely have to sign everything away when they’re hired.

 

[Sage Leviathan]

This whole "That's just how it is, toughen up, buttercup" is-ought fallacy needs to die.

 

[Samsara]

To be fair though, the reason they forced themselves to work all that overtime and didn't talk to bosses about the BS happening with the namecalling and whatnot was directly because they wanted to get a full-time job at NRS. So they're more at fault than anyone. They were naive, they let themselves be used because they wanted to work there and now they're angry because of the abuse they suffered, the abuse they also forced upon themselves.

They NEEDED those hours. They were getting paid barely enough to begin with. How people do all this mental gymnastics to justify a fucked system is beyond me.

 

[bluesdealer]

I'm just here reading who's the clown troll white knighting NRS on this shitshow.

On topic, this is just terrible, and should certainly raise an eyebrow on all of us.

 

[Living Corpse]

If you don't think there are any sexist / racists / bigots / assholes in the 200+ people working at / for NRS, you're kidding yourself.

Too true, the more people who join a group/organization, the harder it gets to keep it under control. Everyone brings baggage.

Just look at the U.S. military as an example. On paper everyone is supposed to be disciplined. In reality there is a lot of harassment of their comrades. How the higher ups expect our troops to be effective at teamwork when they have to worry if their co-worker is gonna murder or rape them is beyond me.

An extreme example I know, but the point stands.

 

[Ram]

They NEEDED those hours. They were getting paid barely enough to begin with. How do people do all this mental gymnastics to justify a fucked system is beyond me.

But they knew what their salary was going to be going in to the job right? So then they chose to accept the wage they received. Why do you think they "were getting paid barely enough"?

 

[Samsara]

But they knew what their salary was going to be going in to the job right? So then they chose to accept the wage they received. Why do you think they "were getting paid barely enough"?

If you think 11/hr is a decent wage for skilled labor at a major studio in the city if Chicago, I have ocean front property in Arizina to sell you.

They had no other choice. Work for 11 or not work and risk never getting a foothold in the industry.

 

[Ram]

If you think 11/hr is a decent wage for skilled labor at a major studio in the city if Chicago, I have ocean front property in Arizina to sell you.

They had no other choice. Work for 11 or not work and risk never getting a foothold in the industry.

It's not about what I think. I'm not the one choosing to take/not take the job.

Really? I didn't know NRS had a gun to their head and forced them to take the job.

 

[Ilthuain]

They had no other choice. Work for 11 or not work and risk never getting a foothold in the industry.

Alternatively, they could go work at a smaller studio with less prestige but better working conditions and skill-building opportunities.

 

[CorneliusBrutus]

Well shit... It won't soil the fun I'm having with the game. But it sure as hell casts a dark shadow over the products.

I'm a gameplay programmer (at another studio, obviously). Honestly, this may come off a little cynical, and I don't mean it to sound like "we shouldn't try to improve anything because bad things exist", but if you didn't use any product or service that was produced at the cost of exploitation you would have a hard time finding things to do, food to eat, whatever . I can't speak for the people at NRS but I would hope people bought and enjoyed a project I had to put a lot of time into, and it's not like not buying/playing is going to send the right message to the corporate people looking at the numbers anyway.

I'm sure a part of that has to do with the rising cost of game production, but I suspect an even bigger part of it has to do with the rising greed of the higher-ups involved.

Yeah, basically. I know a lot of gamers get upset at the prevalence of season passes/DLC, micro transactions, etc. But it's a necessary step companies have started to take. The cost of making games at AAA-quality has only increased over time, the margins at that level are getting worse. But games haven't increased in price for at least 15 years...even before accounting for inflation, something's gotta give.

 

[SLy]

This is especially scary for creators man. Damn man. Makes me sad that my fav franchise conducts in this matter

 

[feedyourcatbro]

But they knew what their salary was going to be going in to the job right? So then they chose to accept the wage they received. Why do you think they "were getting paid barely enough"?

The key word here is salary. They don't make salary. They are not guaranteed hours at all, and it's actually a huge problem. Where I used to work, most of our QA and some small assets were contract or hourly. While they could make a good amount of money in the crunch, there were several periods during the year where they just got utterly boned. Q4, for example, usually involves a lot of housekeeping and small progress. Marketing is super active, but many of the big teams are wrapping up projects. If you're a contractor or hourly, you'll get no work during this time. Or when the trade show season starts. That's about a month and a half where all hands are on deck finishing a specific build, so the rest of the work is sparse, then a week for the show, a couple weeks back to change a bit, next show, and this can go on for a while.

And these folks started at $15/hour. It's just cheaper to have huge teams of disposable contractors and work them to death rather than build up or enhance a core team, and it's when big devs get like this that you know the corporate side is completely dominant.

 

[BecomingDeath13]

I didn't know NRS had a gun to their head and forced them to take the job.

Isn't this the same shit publishers say about their shit show of microtransactions?

We're not holding a gun to their heads and forcing them to buy the mtx... It's optional...

Bullshit. They can take their figurative gun and blow their own asshole out with that shit.

On Topic:
It's always sad when I learn that a company I respect handles business in these ways. None of this shit will change if there's no union. Crunch is general is bullshit and the bullshit the contractors have to go through is worse. You barely get paid at all and need the crunch to sustain your lives, so you destroy your mental health to stay afloat in the hopes that you'll be one of the lucky ones and earn your position in the studio.... It's one hell of a burden to thrust upon yourself just to try and achieve a dream.


This has never and will never be acceptable. People need to stop treating this like some fucking side show attraction and give it the attention it fucking deserves. These are human beings, being put through the wringer and shat out. I don't care if it's NRS or fucking Jesus and Moses making a fucking game about parting the red sea... If anyone treats another human being in this manner then they deserve to be ousted and put on fucking notice that people aren't gonna stand for this shit anymore.

It's easy to brush it off as nothing, but you know if it was one of your loved ones getting the deep fuck like that you'd be all over this fucking issue. It's easy to ignore something when it doesn't have an effect on you personally. Put yourself in someone else's shoes. This practice needs to stop. Period. End of story. Fucking /rant

 

[Vslayer]

They NEEDED those hours. They were getting paid barely enough to begin with. How people do all this mental gymnastics to justify a fucked system is beyond me.

I know the salary is BS but they chose this job and this field. Most of them probably thought it’s a lesser evil to work at minimum wage to get a foot in the industry. I can guarantee you they thought they could soldier through his and work full time for NRS. But most of them couldn’t hack it and it’s understandable. Why do you think they didn’t tell anyone about the abuse they got from NRS employees? Cause they wanted to get hired.

I die a little inside every time someone uses the term mental gymnastics. You could just as well say you don’t agree with me cause you’re angry. Jesus.

 

[Xelz]

Unfortunately this doesn't just happen in the video game industry. I used to work as a contractor (in a completely unrelated industry) before landing a full time position at another company, and saw similar shenanigans. FTE positions dangled as carrots, contractors fired on whims, one even fired to cover up their manager's mistake (manager was a FTE).

And honestly, senior leadership didn't know how bad it was. Middle-management caused all the problems by abusing the system and conveying a rosy message to senior leadership. Meanwhile, senior leaders wondered why there was so much turnover among contractors.

 

[CorneliusBrutus]

Unfortunately this doesn't just happen in the video game industry. I used to work as a contractor (in a completely unrelated industry) before landing a full time position at another company, and saw similar shenanigans. FTE positions dangled as carrots, contractors fired on whims, one even fired to cover up their manager's mistake (manager was a FTE).

Definitely true. Contract work is really tough, especially if you're viewing it as contract-to-hire opportunity rather than just something to get income from for a short period while you work towards something else. And for some companies contract-to-hire is very common while others it's exceptionally rare, it's difficult to see if their claim is bullshit. There's very few protections in place for contract workers.

QA is always the most exploited class in games, contract QA gets it even worse. But there's a commonly held conception that "getting your foot in the door" is the most important thing, then you can work towards being a designer or whatever, so they'll take a chance wherever they can to do so regardless of the terms. I respect the hustle but really the possibility to switch roles like that is very dependent on company culture: some places do it, some places it's nearly impossible. My honest advice to anyone who wants to work in the industry is to take the "foot in the door" thing with a grain of salt, you can work another job while you build your resume doing work on your own/collaborative projects/freelance stuff, and apply for the jobs you actually want want.

 

[STORMS]

Okay... so we're hearing this all very one-sided.

Hell, my workplace gets very stressful too... that usually means you're busy and have lots to accomplish, etc.

Regarding the leaks... when that full screen roster leak happened for MK9... it was even awkward from my point of view behind my PC...

The leaks suck. The best non-leaked character surprise was definitely TMNT for INJ2.

 

[feedyourcatbro]

QA is always the most exploited class in games, contract QA gets it even worse. But there's a commonly held conception that "getting your foot in the door" is the most important thing, then you can work towards being a designer or whatever, so they'll take a chance wherever they can to do so regardless of the terms. I respect the hustle but really the possibility to switch roles like that is very dependent on company culture: some places do it, some places it's nearly impossible. My honest advice to anyone who wants to work in the industry is to take the "foot in the door" thing with a grain of salt, you can work another job while you build your resume doing work on your own/collaborative projects/freelance stuff, and apply for the jobs you actually want want.

This. If I could go back in time, I'd rather intern at a smaller studio or an indie project than worked QA as hourly the way I did. It's absolutely fucking shit. Luckily projects like that seem to be growing, but it's still hard to find openings compared to the huge prestigious studio taking on hundreds of contractors. People gotta know that contractor to hire is a complete fucking lie and it's akin to winning the lottery.

Also Xelz got it on point as well. You can usually see huge issues ahead of time based on the activities or size of Middle Management. Bioware, Blizzard, NRS...it's a pattern that's starting to form.

 

[CorneliusBrutus]

People gotta know that contractor to hire is a complete fucking lie and it's akin to winning the lottery.

Not a complete lie, but definitely for a big studio like NRS, where they've got such a large pool of contractors and also access to industry talent externally, I think it's pretty close. Where I work we do CTH for QA pretty regularly, but it's not exactly everyone's dream job even if they get to that point.

 

[Prateek Shekhar]

I'm in the minority who actually likes the new female art direction but its ironic that NRS preaches about de-sexualizition and how oh-so-noble they are because of it when they treat their REAL life women employees like crap, with the 'nicknames' given to them, not giving them a bathroom ect

Fuck why did I click on that video.
Thanks for ruining my YT recommendations thanks to this 100 view-a-video anti-SJW d-bag.
5 mins into the video and he starts talking about Burqa combat lol

 

[kevkopdx]

I know the salary is BS but they chose this job and this field. Most of them probably thought it’s a lesser evil to work at minimum wage to get a foot in the industry. I can guarantee you they thought they could soldier through his and work full time for NRS. But most of them couldn’t hack it and it’s understandable. Why do you think they didn’t tell anyone about the abuse they got from NRS employees? Cause they wanted to get hired.

I die a little inside every time someone uses the term mental gymnastics. You could just as well say you don’t agree with me cause you’re angry. Jesus.

You should really read up on the rights of independent contractors. They probably didn’t tell anyone about the abuse(at the time it was happening) because in most cases they cannot take action for sexual harassment, a hostile work environment or other types of workplace abuse. They do not have the same rights as employees! If, hypothetically speaking, NRS is floating the potential of full time hire so contractors work harder and are more complacent, but they have no intention of hiring, it’s completely disgusting.

 

[Vslayer]

You should really read up on the rights of independent contractors. They probably didn’t tell anyone about the abuse(at the time it was happening) because in most cases they cannot take action for sexual harassment, a hostile work environment or other types of workplace abuse. They do not have the same rights as employees! If, hypothetically speaking, NRS is floating the potential of full time hire so contractors work harder and are more complacent, but they have no intention of hiring, it’s completely disgusting.

I work for a contractor and that’s a load of crap (at least in Canada). Besides they literally said they were playing faves because they wanted a job there. This is issue is 50/50 here both on people who let compagnies mistreat them just to have a chance at working there and it’s also the fault of compagnies for letting this stuff go on and for the shit salary.

 

[kevkopdx]

I work for a contractor and that’s a load of crap (at least in Canada). Besides they literally said they were playing faves because they wanted a job there. This is issue is 50/50 here both on people who let compagnies mistreat them just to have a chance at working there and it’s also the fault of compagnies for letting this stuff go on and for the shit salary.

It’s not a 50/50 case when one party is a multi million dollar business and the other is a minimum wage contractor with no rights.

 

[Vslayer]

It’s not a 50/50 case when one party is a multi million dollar business and the other is a minimum wage contractor with no rights.

Then they should not freaking accept the job. It is 50/50