Glen Schofield is quite a recognized name in the gaming industry. He ran the now-defunct Visceral Games for several years, where he directed the cult-classic survival-horror title Dead Space. He co-founded Sledgehammer Games and spearheaded various Call of Duty games. And most recently, he created his own team, Striking Distance Studios under the Korean holding company Krafton.
With this new team, the veteran studio head is leading the development of The Callisto Protocol, a highly anticipated survival-horror project which many consider to be Dead Space's spiritual successor. The game is set to launch by the end of the year, and according to Schofield, the team is working 12-15 hour days, six-to-seven days a week to reach that goal.
This tweet has since been deleted. It quickly faced a lot of backlash from journalists and developers in the industry, who expressed their disdain at the apparent celebration of 'crunch culture'. Crunch culture has been a growing topic in the game development industry. Developers working constant overtime shifts was deemed commonplace, especially as a game got closer to its release date. However, throughout the years, after testimonies of burnout and exodus from the field, there's been an industry-wide pushback to make sure developers have a more balanced work-life dynamic.
Many took issue with Schofield's tweet, as it seemed to praise. endorse, and encourage the long hours and the working through illness and exhaustion, with phrases like "This is gaming," and "U do it cause ya luv it." He did specifically state that nobody was being forced to work quite that much, however, crunch culture has been stated to manifest in more implicit ways, such as an internal responsibility from the team to put as much effort in as everyone else, and not fall behind the set schedule.
The Callisto Protocol marked its December release date back in June, and the studio has yet to shift from it, but the game is still far away enough that a delay isn't out of the question. The long hours the development team is putting in means the game might still need a significant amount of work. Recently, Striking Distance's CTO Mark James revealed that the Callisto Protocol plans to have 4 years worth of content post-release with the studio being heavily invested in the future DLC. The team behind the game has deliberately left the game open for future content by making it "expandable."