I think when Corinne Yu tweeted she was working overtime weekends to ensure The Last OF Us reaches 60 FPS on Playstation 4, she didn’t intend to start a debate about gaming industry practices.
Obviously, she wanted fans to get more hype about the game, with an assurance that Naughty Dog were doing the best they can to meet their expectations.
We are coding hard over the weekends with our Naughty Dog graphics team to push The Last of Us past 60 fps.
— Corrinne Yu (@Corrinne) June 15, 2014
However, fellow developers Amandine Coget and Cliff Blezsinski chimed in with their comments, and that’s when the debate got started. Without being nitpicky, I decided to highlight these main points:
- The culture that working weekend is something to be proud of is detrimental to the industry.
- It can create peer pressure for others to do the same.
- The cycle of the E3 crunch in particular can wear down many a developer.
Implicit in all this is the lack of work-life balance caused by this culture, taking developers away from their families and personal lives.
Corinne did clarify this extra work isn’t required to get it done in time, she is taking the initiative to ensure the game looks as good as it can. She also conceded that she had to stay up many nights to get the Uncharted 4 E3 trailer out in time.
How do you feel about this ensuing debate? You can check out the full thread on Twitter (not a single tweet removed) here.
