A new financial report from Sega Sammy Holdings has claimed that the company has reduced its “long overtime hours” by 80-90%.
The company has started this initiative in 2013 with four divisions affected in the large Sega Sammy Holdings- Sega Games, Sega Entertainment (arcades), TMS Entertainment (animation studio) and Sega Toys. The company is also exploring the potential of flex hours and working-from-home initiatives.
“We want employees to have quality time outside of the office so that they do not lose their creative drive,” the report reads.
That said, there are still overtime work practices, but the initiative to curb it down is to be praised.
The video game industry has an unhealthy culture of crunch (overtime work). Recently, Dan Houser of Rockstar has said that members of the development team behind Red Dead Redemption II has worked 100-hours weeks several times this year. A normal 9-to-5 work week is 40 hours, in comparison. Houser later clarified that it’s not everyone that are working that long, yet is still should be a huge concern.
Via Gamasutra