The highly praised Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart didn't rely on crunch

**This story about work-life balance in game development, boiled down, in 1:51 minutes.**

What's the fuss?

The developers behind the newly released AAA game Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart have taken to Twitter to praise the balanced working conditions while making the game. This is a welcome surprise, given that many games of similar scale have required unfair commitment from staff.

The situation

Since 2002, the Ratchet & Clank series has been, and continues to be, a massive franchise for PlayStation.

With its games spanning 5 console generations, 26 million copies sold, and its own (poorly received) theatrical film, it shouldn't be a surprise that millions of combined man hours go into its development.
As Sony owns the studio behind the IP, there is likely pressure from the top to hit certain targets such as sales or budget constraints.

The latest entry in the series, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, is an ambitious title.

You would think that such an innovative game on the newest hardware around would require developers to work around the clock to meet certain milestones.
Thankfully that wasn't the case as tweeted by a couple of the game's developers, who gleefully stated that the game was made relatively "crunch-free".
The contrast between these claims and the common horror stories of poor work-life balance in the industry is quite alarming.

Boiling it down

Developing modern video games is a tall order, which is the main driver for what's commonly known as "crunch".

"Crunch time" is the point where a team is thought to be failing to achieve milestones needed to release a game on time.
Crunch tends to come from both corporate and peer pressure, resulting in poor quality of life being the norm rather than an exception.

It's fortunate that the team behind Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart worked 40 hours a week, compared to 100+ hours a week in some reported cases.

To add insult to injury, game developers and artists are salaried employees, meaning that they aren't subject to mandatory overtime.
Such poor conditions have been openly and publicly criticized, which will hopefully lead to a solution such as unionization.

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