Netherrealm Studios Crunch 80-100 hours work

[Johnnybuttons]

https://www.pcgamer.com/former-devs-speak-out-about-severe-crunch-at-mortal-kombat-studio/

Injustice 2 Crunch Led To Colleague's Death: Ex-NetherRealm Employee

Twitter user blasts the studio for its empolyee treatment and expected crunch work A Twitter user that goes by the name of Jiminy Snackmouth has opened up

www.gamepur.com

80-100 hours were normal at NRS for weeks or months at a time, while contractors struggled with low pay. After some publicy of the Fortnight contreversy, former devs of NRS spoke out about the brutal hours they had to do during MK9, Injustice 2 and MKX. Beck Hallstedt, who contributed to Injustice 2 as a contract concept artist, weighed in on Twitter with more allegations in response to Longstreets tweets, saying that Netherrealm Studios "Needs to be exposed for predatory and abusive behaviors in the same ways Riot, Epic and TellTale have". Hallstedt claimed that the studios relies heavily on temporary workers "on a 9 month on, 3 month off cycle with no benefits near minimum wage, strung along with lukewarm messaging that maybe you'll be hired "after the next contract"
Another employee who wanted to remain anymonous said she tried to file a complaints about Netherrealm Studios to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. "We brought up harrasment the bathroom issue, the secret nicknames that devs had for all female employees, the lack of woman who had full-time jobs, the singling out that we experienced, ect ect. It took a year for the EEOC to decide that apparently nothing bad had happened and on top of it all NRS insulted my co-worker and me, telling us we were misremembering everything and taking personal jabs at our skills"
Another former QA analyst who requested to be quoted anymonously, confirmed the $12 hour wage and how it fed into the crunch. "I managed to get by for a while but iy got to a point where I had to put my Student loans on hold. If it wasn't for the money made during the crunch, I've likely have had to settle for a different job and industry, which is something I didn't want to do because this was something I finished school for and was my passion for. I didn't want to throw it all away but I should have thought differently".
"Nothing improved after injustice 2. Everything was down to the wire. Everything was worse". -Rebecca Rothschilds
When the studio was in crunch mode, it was common to see workers walk around in pajamas. "One guy was notorious for being in a bathrobe" Rothschilds said.
A worker by the name of Miguel supposedly died at his death during crunch time.

I'd like to point out that's its not crazy to think twice about posting a complaint about MK11 or any game for that matter as a consumer, whether its about the latest patch, certain animations or the designs of the female characters. These aren't just game devs, these are real people with real lives and are at the mercy of greedy industries.

Hi, guys. I used to work for the National Labor Relations Board, so I just wanted to give my two cents.
NRS employees, if these stories are true and you want change - you should persue your legal right to unionize. The law also gives you the right to bring these concerns up to your employer *as long as there are at least two people doing it, you are legally protected from retaliation *. If there are at least two NRS employees interested in learning more about the process you need to contact the region 13 office at 3123535208 and ask to speak to an Information officer.
Complaining about it on Twitter might feel nice, but instead I think it better to actually exercise your right to obtain better working conditions.

 

[Tanya-Fan-28]

Buying and playing the game means that their hard work wasnt for nothing.

Not buying a game and not playing doesnt change anything about this work culture that is pretty common.

It sucks but consumers have almost none influence to that.

Crunch culture being highlighted is going on for over a decade now and can only fought against with unions and changes inside the industry itself.

No consumer should feel guilty about this and think they support crunch culture because most, even indie games have crunch nowadays.

My sister and I were talking about this today because I have the PS4 version and she has the Switch port. She said its like veganism, not eating the meat you just bought and throwing it out means that the poor animal got slaughtered for nothing. Boycotting meat altogether is a whole other can of beans which is why I'm conflicted on playing but what you and a few other formerers pointed out made me feel a bit better. I just wish I could hear a Dev tell me that its fine as fans to play or something like that. I mean non of them went out of their way to actually discourage from buying on twitter so?