Uncharted director criticizes triple-a development, says it can 'destroy people'

[potato_hamster]

DonFerrari said:

potato_hamster said:

Some games have hard deadlines, and there's absolutely no way to change it. Think about games based on movies, or games based off of toy lines, or sports games. If those games don't come out by certain deadlines, there are enormous penalties from publishers, because the window to generate sales of those games is very limited.

Think about a game based on the FIFA World Cup. Imagine that game coming out two weeks before the work cup, vs. six months after the final has been played. Which release date would lead to higher sales?

Program management is not so easy as some may think right? It isn't just a matter of tossing more money or people at a problem and it will sort out.

Video game companies pour millions of dollars into educated and experienced project managers and plan games years in advance and there are still hundreds of instances of video games having extended crunch period.

I mean sure, on paper all of these issues can be planned away, in the real world, life happens, and that can completely shred even the best laid plans in a matter of days.  People have been making video games for over 4 decades now, and software development for even longer. Yet crunch is something that happens industry wide on varying scales. If people actually think they have realistic and pracitcal solutions to eliminate crunch and still keep game development costs and deadlines the same, then by all means, become an industry legend and prove your worth. The industry is begging for it.