The Day Before developers Fntastic has defended its use of unpaid volunteers in a statement given to Eurogamer.
The Singapore-based developers recently updated their website with a tab called “Volunteers” which explained that the company considers everyone working for them to be volunteers, however, some are compensated as full-time workers and others are “unpaid volunteers” who receive certificates, free codes and other unknown rewards rather than financial compensation.
Naturally, people were surprised that a high-profile venture like The Day Before was making use of unpaid labour, especially considering the game has millions of wishlists on Steam. In response to the media circulating the update to the developer’s website, they provided an update to Eurogamer.
“Essentially the word ‘volunteer’ comes from the Latin word ‘voluntarius’, meaning ‘willing’ or ‘of one’s own choice’.”
“Anyone who is open to life can become a volunteer with Fntastic, and there are two types of volunteers. Today we have over 100 full-time internal volunteers (employees) from Singapore, Russia, the Netherlands, Thailand, Ukraine, Finland, Kazakhstan, and Belarus who work as engineers, artists, HR professionals, etc. We also have 40 external US and worldwide volunteers (supporters) who help with testing and reviewing our products at a very early stage.”
The use of the word volunteer as a synonym for full-time employee seems unnecessary but Fntastic seems to be trying to cultivate a particular type of work culture and there isn’t anything inherently wrong with that. However, the use of actual unpaid labour is still questionable.
As for the work these unpaid volunteers perform, the company elaborated on that. “In addition to tests, external volunteers (supporters) help localise products into different languages.”
As justification for the use of unpaid volunteers, Fntastic provided this anecdote: “Last year, we ordered localisation for Propnight from a well-known large studio specialising in translations. As practice has shown, the result of their work was not so perfect. Most of it had to be redone with the help of our enthusiastic volunteers (supporters). In Propnight, together with these supporters, we found bugs, dealt with cheaters, and even organised our Discord communities.”
Paid workers doing a poor job on localisation is hardly sufficient justification for not paying workers doing valuable work on a game. Fntastic doesn’t directly address the fact they are using unpaid workers in their statement.
“Here is a good example: Recently, one of our first volunteers from the Netherlands became a full-time internal volunteer (employee), and more will be recruited.”
However, one out of 40 volunteers becoming salaried is not a great turnover rate.