Jason Schreier: As Naughty Dog Crunches On The Last Of Us II, Developers Wonder How Much Longer This Approach Can Last

[nib95]

You know what. I'm genuinely going to take the approach of buying this second hand on disk then trade it in once I've completed it. It's just not worth supporting this.

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Lol, is this supposed to be some sort of noble thing? What you're doing is far worse than those who'll be buying the game, since you're still enjoying the game so many people poured their heart and soul into making, only you'll not be giving them any sort of credit or financial benefit at all, so you're essentially taking advantage of that work and those devs in a much bigger way.

If you really want to be noble, don't play it full stop. It along with the vast majority of other games (or projects you don't have further info on with respect to crunch), since crunch is endemic to the industry as a whole.

 

[denx]

Alleviating strict deadline with conjunction with better management is a great first step in eradicating crunch, what do you want them to do? Just continue? It will eventually catch up with them like what happened with Bioware

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In ND case, it isn't so much an issue of deadlines as much as it is a problem of internal culture. They encourage workaholism in all their workers, so if you extend a deadline, they won't use the extra time to complete the game at a more relaxed pace, they'll use that time to crunch even more. They need first and foremost a shakeup of their company culture and beliefs. That's why there are some devs who are actually rooting for TLOU2 to fail, they want ND to take notice that their current way of doing things is unsustainable.

 

[Sage Anahata]

Why aren't they simply hiring more people?

Working those hours will kill moral, efficiency, and quality. That turnover rate also has a huge impact, probably costing them a shit ton.

Hiring more people literally has no downsides and only positives. There's always another project/game, so no manpower ever goes to waste.

This seems like an issue with management, going all the way up to the top.

 

[Glio]

Why aren't they simply hiring more people?

Working those hours will kill moral, efficiency, and quality. That turnover rate also has a huge impact, probably costing them a shit ton.

Hiring more people literally has no downsides and only positives. There's always another project/game, so no manpower ever goes to waste.

This seems like an issue with management, going all the way up to the top.

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Because in some places that is not the problem. It is culture. If they hired 100 more people, they would put them on crunch "because that way we can get a better game."

It is incredibly easy to manipulate someone when they are working on their childhood dream.

 

[RROCKMAN]

Gamers want to have their cake and eat it too. Especially since someone else have to buy the game to even get it secondhand, so supporting the practice they're against.

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Huh

Even if we look at it from a stripped own basic logic viewpoint

two people paying 59.99 is most certainly not the same as one person paying 59.99 and the other paying half that to a third party that may or may not put that same money into the devs.

There is a reason certain publishers were trying to cut the used game market(it certainly wasn't because they thought they were being supported) so I don't see why y'all are guilt tripping him over this.

 

[DrDeckard]

Then u better just find another hobby, cuz most devs crunch, its just a reality of the industry.

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I wonder if you do this with most games seeing how crunch time in the industry is very common and most devs won't admit it.

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Lol, is this supposed to be some sort of noble thing? What you're doing is far worse than those who'll be buying the game, since you're still enjoying the game so many people poured their heart and soul into making, only you'll not be giving them any sort of credit or financial benefit at all, so you're essentially taking advantage of that work and those devs in a much bigger way.

If you really want to be noble, don't play it full stop. It along with the vast majority of other games (or projects you don't have further info on with respect to crunch), since crunch is endemic to the industry as a whole.

Click to shrink...

Hopefully those people will have already been paid.

These are the responses I expected tbh. I shouldn't have expressed what I did as I was frustrated with what I just read.

I dont think studios crunch as hard as naughty dog and rockstar. Surely if every studio had a 70% turnover jason would be reporting it?

I expected people to try and defend ND though.

 

[RPTGB]

It is galling to me that the industry is in a perpetual state of wondering how crunch can be allievated.

Take more time. Or hire more people. People are getting divorced and having mental breakdowns because of this shit.

I can wait another year or whatever for a release.

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Naughty Dog already use a shit ton of outsourcing, the problem is a total lack of proper management and scheduling.

 

[PinballRJ]

I would say it's leadership or management problem that causes crunch but I've also heard it's often co-workers encouraging eachother to do it. Even small indy devs have this problem.

I wonder if Lucas Pope crunches

 

[Sage Anahata]

Because in some places that is not the problem. It is culture. If they hired 100 more people, they would put them on crunch "because that way we can get a better game."

It is incredibly easy to manipulate someone when they are working on their childhood dream.

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I guess the only answer to that I could offer is unions. It's tough to see the people I love being mistreated for something as joyless as money.

 

[Agnostic Priest]

Do these companies that run these crunch cycles pay overtime? I own a welding company and we have our busy time of the year (probably 3-4 months) working 10-12 hours a day, 5-6 days a week.

My guys are ecstatic to work that much because of how I compensate them. To us, "crunch" is perfectly normal and often requested/encouraged by my workers.

Is this issue due to the workers not being paid enough to work these long hours? Or is it different crunching in a trade industry vs a tech industry?

 

[HeroR]

Huh

Even if we look at it from a stripped own basic logic viewpoint

two people paying 59.99 is most certainly not the same as one person paying 59.99 and the other paying half that to a third party that may or may not put that same money into the devs.

There is a reason certain publishers were trying to cut the used game market(it certainly wasn't because they thought they were being supported) so I don't see why y'all are guilt tripping him over this.

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That is assuming the money they're losing from that one person isn't offset by several dozen people. Especially when they could be spreading awareness and telling other people not to buy the game. Not helping that you're still enjoying all the benefits from the crunched time. You're just not paying the people who did all that hard work, which comes off worse than simply not buying the game as protest for those workers.

 

[nib95]

Why aren't they simply hiring more people?

Working those hours will kill moral, efficiency, and quality. That turnover rate also has a huge impact, probably costing them a shit ton.

Hiring more people literally has no downsides and only positives. There's always another project/game, so no manpower ever goes to waste.

This seems like an issue with management, going all the way up to the top.

Click to shrink...

ND's development team size has increased enormously over the years, so they are indeed constantly hiring people, it's just with more man power they're getting ever more ambitious with the games they're making, and the people they're hiring are the kind that love pushing tech and design boundaries too (hence more time consuming), so it's no doubt a complex balance.

Druckmann stated that one of the reasons they delayed the game was to minimise the amount of crunch their team had to face, but if this Kotaku article is accurate, it seems the project may have just grown in size or ambition, thus mitigating the move to minimise crunch.

 

[____]

Why aren't they simply hiring more people?

Working those hours will kill moral, efficiency, and quality. That turnover rate also has a huge impact, probably costing them a shit ton.

Hiring more people literally has no downsides and only positives. There's always another project/game, so no manpower ever goes to waste.

This seems like an issue with management, going all the way up to the top.

Click to shrink...

When you hire more people it costs a lot of money. In recruitment costs and expenses and in salaries + benefits. It also means there must be even more management to manage the extra headcount, training/onboarding/familiarization etc. This has potential to introduce scope creep and unless efficiently managed, can also cause the project costs to inflate and likely may result in an even longer timeline.

These are of course examples based off of things I've seen in my career, but throwing bodies on a problem is not always the solution.

 

[DreamSurf]

Do these companies that run these crunch cycles pay overtime? I own a welding company and we have our busy time of the year (probably 3-4 months) working 10-12 hours a day, 5-6 days a week.

My guys are ecstatic to work that much because of how I compensate them. To us, "crunch" is perfectly normal and often requested/encouraged by my workers.

Is this issue due to the workers not being paid enough to work these long hours? Or is it different crunching in a trade industry vs a tech industry?

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No, its not really that different. The only thing is the games industry has an expectation of overtime. It is never optional. Your job basically depends on you working overtime. Many other fields have overtime but in the games industry it is a requirement. Thats why people want change.

Personally, I dont think crunch can ever be avoided. Games are an art, art can be worked on for an indefinite amount of time and the artists will always strive to do the best in their work. However, there are ways to mitigate crunch and make the effects of crunch easier to deal with. Clearly Naughty dog needs to work on this.

 

[KastuśKalinoŭski]

I wonder if Lucas Pope crunches

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maybe

 

[Jayembi]

This is basically a problem in the US and other countries, where many jobs are not unionized. I remember that a friend went to live in the US for a while and got a normal job where they made him work more than 8 hours, inviting him to do so. If he didn't, they fired him.

These things don't happen in other countries because work is regulated so that it is a balanced system and not only and extremely in favor of the employer.

 

[Kamaros]

I would say it's leadership or management problem that causes crunch but I've also heard it's often co-workers encouraging eachother to do it. Even small indy devs have this problem.

I wonder if Lucas Pope crunches

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hard to say, he takes his time between his games but i would not guarantee it. indie devs having no office hours normally crunch hard.

maybe

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yeah :/

 

[elenarie]

My company tries to force people to leave the office. But we can work at home 🤷‍♂️

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We have developed a culture where we tell people to go home. This includes regular folks, leads and people managers.

It may all be fine and sweet, but people staying late on their own will only result in them burning out. Short term benefits for long term cultural damages.
I would rather have a good culture than tunnel vision something short-term.

 

[DrDeckard]

ND's development team size has increased enormously over the years, so they are indeed constantly hiring people, it's just with more man power they're getting ever more ambitious with the games they're making, and the people they're hiring are the kind that love pushing tech and design boundaries too (hence more time consuming), so it's no doubt a complex balance.

Druckmann stated that one of the reasons they delayed the game was to minimise the amount of crunch their team had to face, but if this Kotaku article is accurate, it seems the project may have just grown in size or ambition, thus mitigating the move to minimise crunch.

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It literally says they were told to not to slow down in their meeting after the delay was announced...so druckmann lied.

 

[Domcorleone]

It literally says they were told to not to slow down in their meeting after the delay was announced...so druckmann lied.

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lol you're so transparent its hilarious.

 

[residentgrigo]

Uncharted 4 was hell do develop and TLOU 1 was apparently another hard birth. Can´t say that I would sign up with such an employer. R* or CD Project have proven that you can crunch for a decade and still survive as a AAA developer (don´t do it of course) but the shoe has to drop at some point. The BioWare magic effect.
Daddy Sony better step up at some point as the breakdown of such a studio would hurt and not many of the old guard are still left. 2 and a half months till release but the usual DLC and patching rounds won´t leave time to relax for another few months.

 

[Deleted member 23212]

Unionize, it's the only way.

 

[Convasse]

lol you're so transparent its hilarious.

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How do you publicly state that a delay will alleviate crunch and then privately tell your team that it's full steam ahead even with a delay? #NoDaysOff
That's *GASP* called lying.
Let's address the points raised in the article rather than using ad hominems.

 

[nib95]

Hopefully those people will have already been paid.

These are the responses I expected tbh. I shouldn't have expressed what I did as I was frustrated with what I just read.

I dont think studios crunch as hard as naughty dog and rockstar. Surely if every studio had a 70% turnover jason would be reporting it?

I expected people to try and defend ND though.

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Firstly, how are you assuming that no other studio crunches as hard as Rockstar or Naughty Dog?

On that point, crunch is only one aspect of working at a studio. Naughty Dog actually has one of the best Glassdoor or employee review profiles out there, so clearly, despite the crunch, many devs still love and enjoy working at ND, be it because of the benefits, people, facilities, wages, quality of work, working environments, promotion avenues and so on and so forth. People like yourself seem to forget this part of the equation. But it is weird you want to enjoy people's hard work without actually paying for it, and think this will somehow benefit the devs?

To gauge an idea of how some major studios fare in terms of employee feedback, here's a random list. ND, Sony Santa Monica and Nintendo have the best employee reviews from those I could think of and searched.

Naughty Dog Reviews

78 Naughty Dog reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Electronic Arts Reviews

2,856 Electronic Arts reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Valve Corporation Reviews

62 Valve Corporation reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

EA Sports Reviews

64 EA Sports reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Rare Reviews

63 Rare reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Rockstar Games Reviews

374 Rockstar Games reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Nintendo of Europe Reviews

46 Nintendo of Europe reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

343 Industries Career: Working at 343 Industries

What is it really like to work at 343 Industries? What do employees say about pay and career opportunities? Discover anonymous reviews now!

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Ubisoft Reviews

2,929 Ubisoft reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

BioWare Reviews

111 BioWare reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Nintendo Reviews

68 Nintendo reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Santa Monica Studio Career: Working at Santa Monica Studio

What is it really like to work at Santa Monica Studio? What do employees say about pay and career opportunities? Discover anonymous reviews now!

www.glassdoor.co.uk

 

[Domcorleone]

Serious question in what ways can you avoid crunch? Hire more people or have the publisher set a more reasonable launch date? Any devs in here able to share their experience with game launches? I was always under the assumption that every company that is reasonable for a launch by a certain date has to crunch to get it done, whether it be fashion, websites, apps or games.

 

[Domcorleone]

How do you publicly state that a delay will alleviate crunch and then privately tell your team that it's full steam ahead even with a delay? #NoDaysOff
That's *GASP* called lying.
Let's address the points raised in the article rather than using ad hominems.

Click to shrink...

I just did in a different post, I quoted that person because they have a weird axe to grind with Sony. Look at their post history. But yes no dev should lie but I dont know the full extent of the situation and alleviating crunch could easily mean 12 hours instead of 16 hours. I dont think you can completely know Neils intent with that statement. I would expect any creator to have to hunker down at a certain point and time prior to launching a product.

 

[DailyCalmSpirit]

"They do try to take care of you, providing food, encouragement to go take breaks," said one former developer. "But for the most part, the implication is: 'Get the job done at all costs.'"

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Maybe I've had a long day, or something, but, I don't exactly understand this sentence.

It's hardly "at all costs" if they're taking care of you, isn't it?

 

[Trup1aya]

Do game developers work typical hours throughout most of the cycle, then go into crunch mode towards the end? Or are their periods of crunch throughout?

Is there something about the pressure of a deadline that keeps urgency muted throughout the course of development until the very end?

Would scheduling longer dev cycles actually fix the problem, or would it simply lead to more ambitious games that end up being crunched at end anyway?

Maybe I've had a long day, or something, but, I don't exactly understand this sentence.

It's hardly "at all costs" if they're taking care of you, isn't it?

Click to shrink...

Ordering a pizza and allowing a nap on the floor doesn't remove the aura of "you need to stay here and grind it out at the expense of your quality of life"

 

[DrDeckard]

Firstly, how are you assuming that no other studio crunches as hard as Rockstar or Naughty Dog?

On that point, crunch is only one aspect of working at a studio. Naughty Dog actually has one of the best Glassdoor or employee review profiles out there, so clearly, despite the crunch, many devs still love and enjoy working at ND, be it because of the benefits, people, facilities, wages, quality of work, working environments, promotion avenues and so on and so forth. People like yourself seem to forget this part of the equation. But it is weird you want to enjoy people's hard work without actually paying for it, and think this will somehow benefit the devs?

To gauge an idea of how some major studios fare in terms of employee feedback, here's a random list. ND, Sony Santa Monica and Nintendo have the best employee reviews from those I could think of and searched.

Naughty Dog Reviews

78 Naughty Dog reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Electronic Arts Reviews

2,856 Electronic Arts reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Valve Corporation Reviews

62 Valve Corporation reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

EA Sports Reviews

64 EA Sports reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Rare Reviews

63 Rare reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Rockstar Games Reviews

374 Rockstar Games reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Nintendo of Europe Reviews

46 Nintendo of Europe reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

343 Industries Career: Working at 343 Industries

What is it really like to work at 343 Industries? What do employees say about pay and career opportunities? Discover anonymous reviews now!

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Ubisoft Reviews

2,929 Ubisoft reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

BioWare Reviews

111 BioWare reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Nintendo Reviews

68 Nintendo reviews. A free inside look at company reviews and salaries posted anonymously by employees.

www.glassdoor.co.uk

Santa Monica Studio Career: Working at Santa Monica Studio

What is it really like to work at Santa Monica Studio? What do employees say about pay and career opportunities? Discover anonymous reviews now!

www.glassdoor.co.uk

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I appreciate you putting all this hard work in. 59 reviews seems low for how many employees they have had.

Let's just leave it, I appreciate crunch is a problem across the board and its solely not just at naughty dog but I do think it's pretty obvious they are amongst the worst.

My intention was not to trigger some kind of a response, i was frustrated and venting.

Thanks for your insight into how this affects multiple studios.

 

[Niandra_LaDes]

No, its not really that different. The only thing is the games industry has an expectation of overtime. It is never optional. Your job basically depends on you working overtime. Many other fields have overtime but in the games industry it is a requirement. Thats why people want change.

Personally, I dont think crunch can ever be avoided. Games are an art, art can be worked on for an indefinite amount of time and the artists will always strive to do the best in their work. However, there are ways to mitigate crunch and make the effects of crunch easier to deal with. Clearly Naughty dog needs to work on this.

Click to shrink...

It is a widespread problem and culture/expectation that permeates many industries in the US. I am an attorney working in a relatively small city/town and depending on the week/month are almost forced to work crazy hours to meet court and other deadlines. The expectation of overtime is never explicitly articulated, but the reality of deadlines and billable hour quotas often necessitate it. It is a double edged sword in many occupations because truly great unrivaled work (like Naughty Dog) put out by these leading companies are most often the result of crazy long hours with a singular focus.

Obviously there are other ways to build a quality and successful game or product. It definitely isn't easy coordinating these large teams to prevent wasted work and being beholden to larger companies with time sensitive financial goals (even though they may be unrealistic and punitive). And god forbid they put out a bad or buggy game because they didn't have enough time to finish/polish, it may result in weak sales and the developer closing or huge layoffs (eg bioware/anthem). There are so many interconnected things at play that there is no easy answer. Certainly not saying these huge corporations can't pay more to workers instead of execs (they should) and have more realistic goals that aren't just constant unrealistic growth.
#JustMyThoughtsComingFromASportsJunkieRegardlessMyOwnSportIPlay

 

[Iron Eddie]

Seems odd given most of their games seem to get delayed anyways. Why not give realistic release dates in the first place? I've never made a game so its easy for me to say but why do we see this all too often even when games gets delayed?

Either they have poor project managers or unrealistic goals. Look no further than Star Citizen.

 

[Ænima]

Seems odd given most of their games seem to get delayed anyways. Why not give realistic release dates in the first place? I've never made a game so its easy for me to say but why do we see this all too often even when games gets delayed?

Either they have poor project managers or unrealistic goals. Look no further than Star Citizen.

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I never worked in videogames, other that bulding shit in LBP, but i can only imagine the unpredictable amount of bugs and broken stuff they notice when close to launch and they realize there will not be enough time to iron everething out in the previously anounced date.

 

[dex3108]

 

[dex3108]

 

[Asbsand]

EDIT: YIKES, twitter wall!

Yeah. Some of us has been seeing this from the outside too. Naughty Dog has gotten worse with more talented people actually leaving and them continuing to use the same methods with the people that are left, and getting slower and worse results, which then take that much longer to perfect into their usual bar for quality.

 

[Iwao]

These devs shouldn't have to break their backs to break the ground. The culture really needs to change cause but it probably won't because Naughty Dog games keep getting bigger in the AAA race.

 

[Glio]

ND's development team size has increased enormously over the years, so they are indeed constantly hiring people, it's just with more man power they're getting ever more ambitious with the games they're making, and the people they're hiring are the kind that love pushing tech and design boundaries too (hence more time consuming), so it's no doubt a complex balance.

Druckmann stated that one of the reasons they delayed the game was to minimise the amount of crunch their team had to face, but if this Kotaku article is accurate, it seems the project may have just grown in size or ambition, thus mitigating the move to minimise crunch.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, the word "ambition" has reached an unsustainable point. You can ALWAYS make the game bigger, you have to know when to stop.

 

[IronicSonic]

ND's development team size has increased enormously over the years, so they are indeed constantly hiring people, it's just with more man power they're getting ever more ambitious with the games they're making, and the people they're hiring are the kind that love pushing tech and design boundaries too (hence more time consuming), so it's no doubt a complex balance.

Druckmann stated that one of the reasons they delayed the game was to minimise the amount of crunch their team had to face, but if this Kotaku article is accurate, it seems the project may have just grown in size or ambition, thus mitigating the move to minimise crunch.

Click to shrink...

Yeah. I suspect creative leads play a huge role in this crunch culture.

 

[ShutterMunster]

Oof...

Cooper is really airing them out on Twitter. Rough situation.

 

[sonicmj1]

Why aren't they simply hiring more people?

Working those hours will kill moral, efficiency, and quality. That turnover rate also has a huge impact, probably costing them a shit ton.

Hiring more people literally has no downsides and only positives. There's always another project/game, so no manpower ever goes to waste.

This seems like an issue with management, going all the way up to the top.

Click to shrink...

If you read the article you'd see the issue with that analysis.

Two of the specific issues flagged here that contribute to crunch are:
- Having to bring on inexperienced staff to replace high levels of employee churn leads to time wasted on training and getting their skills up to the standard expected of the company. This means that both the new people and those supervising them have to crunch more (which leads to more burnout, creating a vicious cycle).
- Poor communication across the number of employees that already exist means that sometimes one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing, so people will find out that content they're working on today was cut a week ago. This wastes time, slows down the project, hurts morale, and means more work has to be done to catch up.

It's not a resource problem. It's a culture and management problem. Throwing bodies at it wouldn't change the pressures creating the issue.

 

[DrDeckard]

I remember when Jonathan Cooper was Naughty Dogs hero on many a website and forum...He is going absolutely IN on ND right now.

I was going to suggest ND may try and get staff to sign some form of NDA upon leaving but I didnt want to suggest it. fucking YIKES!!!

 

[Naga]

Click to shrink...

Good thread.

And unsurprising for anyone in this industry (or close to it) unfortunately. ND really needs to change rather than being proud of that.

 

[Iron Eddie]

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That's pretty direct.

 

[AgentOtaku]

Unacceptable. I feel sorry for all of those people killing themselves to get this project out the door instead of spending time with their families.

Click to shrink...

Amen

 

[Deleted member 20297]

Click to shrink...

There is absolutely no way to spin this into anything even remotely positive. Disgusting.

 

[PinballRJ]

maybe

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Who's making him crunch?

 

[KastuśKalinoŭski]

Who's making him crunch?

Click to shrink...

Market.

 

[Deleted member 41520]

Hiring more people literally has no downsides and only positives

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Every staff member costs a LOT of MONEY (the generic figure is $10,000 per head per month - probably more at a big studio like this) and every staff member costs a LOT of TIME (tens of hours of productivity lost to training, hundreds of hours before a staff member is "settled in")

there is your downside

Who's making him crunch?

Click to shrink...

One of the challenges with videogames is there being no upper limit on quality. It's true of every medium but at least in film you have so many weeks' filming, in music you have so many weeks in-studio, etc... in indie development you have an unlimited "quality ceiling". The more you, personally, put in, the better the game will become.

So he was crunching because he knew he had to crunch to make the thing he wanted to make.
- wants to make great game
- if he doesn't crunch, it is less likely to play + look how he wants it to play + look
- thus he crunches, because he knows it will pay off (in some fashion)

 

[Metfanant]

There is really no reason for this to ever happen...if a project is properly managed, then this should never happen...

Obviously there are multiple factors at work, but if you've set an APPROPRIATE time frame for project completion, and that time is managed properly...then there should be no need to crunch

 

[Eeyore]

Why aren't they simply hiring more people?

Working those hours will kill moral, efficiency, and quality. That turnover rate also has a huge impact, probably costing them a shit ton.

Hiring more people literally has no downsides and only positives. There's always another project/game, so no manpower ever goes to waste.

This seems like an issue with management, going all the way up to the top.

Click to shrink...

You have a fundamental misunderstanding of software development. Throwing more people at a problem doesn't necessarily make it faster.

Brooks's law - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org