Sega has reduced the number of employees working over 60 hours a week by 80-90%

[Nirolak]

Don't get too impressed here given 60 hour weeks are still gigantic, but baby steps are important, especially given Japanese work culture.

Mind, they technically count it by number of hours per month, so it's possible there are people working 80 hours one week and 40 the next.

Source: https://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/ir/library/pdf/printing_annual/2018/ssh_ar18e_web.pdf

 

[Razgriz417]

Step in the right direction

 

[Rodjer]

That's depressing, no shit SEGA keeps releasing Yakuza games every year.

This is only for SEGA Japan right? I don't think employees working under SEGA Europe label are working 60hours/week

 

[Nirolak]

That's depressing no shit SEGA keeps releasing Yakuza games every year.

This is only for SEGA Japan right? I don't think employees working under SEGA Europe label are working 60hours/week

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This is most likely Sega Japan, yes.

While some Western studios are super bad about crunch (see the Rockstar thread), there has been a more aggressive push to get that under control overseas*.

Like DICE was known for having 14-16 hour days near launch around the time of Battlefield 3, and Blizzard was putting in 100+ hour weeks around Diablo 3, but a lot of DICE staff didn't crunch on the last few Battlefield games, and basically no one was crunching on the Hearthstone team unless they were attending a convention (or the servers imploded).

* It's probably not a coincidence that this coincided with experienced senior staff being extremely in demand for AAA games instead of being seen as disposable (or at least in high supply).

 

[Deleted member 10629]

60 hours is still a lot but at least they care. Good going, Sega.

 

[ASaiyan]

Sad that this is "progress" in the year 2018, but still good for those employees nonetheless.

 

[chobel]

They're now working 59 hours a week.

 

[Richietto]

60 is still a lot but considering its Japan that has to be pretty good all things considered.

 

[Rodjer]

This is most likely Sega Japan, yes.

While some Western studios are super bad about crunch (see the Rockstar thread), there has been a more aggressive push to get that under control overseas*.

Like DICE was known for having 14-16 hour days near launch around the time of Battlefield 3, and Blizzard was putting in 100+ hour weeks around Diablo 3, but a lot of DICE staff didn't crunch on the last few Battlefield games, and basically no one was crunching on the Hearthstone team unless they were attending a convention (or the servers imploded).

* It's probably not a coincidence that this coincided with experienced senior staff being extremely in demand instead of being seen as disposable.

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Yes, EA and Blizzard are doing really good and treating their employees better than other publishers.

 

[Nirolak]

Yes, EA and Blizzard are doing really good and treating their employees better than other publishers.

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Ubisoft Montreal was insisting that they got this under control recently.

Interestingly, the impetus there was that they mostly make service games now, and realized that if they kept their old habits, their staff would work 80+ hours continually with no end, since they could no longer go home and take a 3 month break after the product shipped or whatever.

 

[Solidsnakejej]

Shouldn't that be 80 instead of 60? Its good that they are taking steps to reduce it but still a long way to go.

 

[Nirolak]

Shouldn't that be 80 instead of 60? Its good that they are taking steps to reduce it but still a long way to go.

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It's 80 hours of overtime per month, which averages out to 60 hours per week (I'm assuming their standard work week is 40 hours).

 

[Deleted member 11976]

No-meeting-days and streamlining meetings is so important. A lot of crunch is created by too many meetings and ones that are run inefficiently, in my experience. Good for SEGA.

 

[Dark Cloud]

Sega does...

 

[balohna]

Japan with their "stay until the boss goes home" work culture has pretty terrible work hours, crunch or not. Cool to see a Japanese dev as big as Sega actually try to address long work hours at all.

 

[Odeko]

Shouldn't that be 80 instead of 60? Its good that they are taking steps to reduce it but still a long way to go.

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80 hours per month of overtime = 20 hours per week of overtime

40 hours of standard time + 20 over = 60 hours per week

 

[Deleted member 19218]

Today in Tokyo I worked from 8am to 9pm. That's normal.

 

[Philly Cheesesteak]

Isn't this really an indictment of Japanese culture involving work and the "salaryman" attitude?

 

[Odeko]

Sega does...

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I know this is a joke but has Nintendo ever done this? Nintendo always struck me as being potentially the best non-indie place in the whole industry to work. Unbelievable job security, (relatively) hands-off creative management, and no stories of horrible crunch that's not self-imposed (sorry Sakurai).

 

[Deleted member 2620]

Oh, Sega Japan?

That's, yeah, the right direction.

 

[Risev]

It's just crazy how many hours gaming devs are put through. But I suppose this is not exactly limited to the gaming industry (though it is a big problem to be sure). I work 35-40 hours a week at a governmental job, and even that is irritating to me at times. The fact that so many people around the world in developed / first world countries work easily double or almost quadruple that amount is insane to me.

 

[Toni]

This should be the standard going forward given how much backlash crunch in this industry has been getting has of late.

Companies that rack in the multimillions should not be winning by this much over its employees.

 

[J75]

I love the Yakuza series but it really hurts me how much of a crunch RGGS must be facing. Hopefully this improves the situation.

 

[Igniz12]

Good to see this coming from the Japanese side too.

 

[mario_O]

I think 40 is still too much. 6 hour shifts is the sweet spot, I think. And two days off obviously. Also, US and Japan need their one month paid vacation like here in Europe.

 

[kriskrosbbk]

I also read they are closing some activities in London and moving the office to Sofia.

 

[Doggg]

Sega does what Nintendon't?

 

[Sabercrusader]

It's a step in the right direction. I understand that if you build projects and culture around crazy long work weeks, you can't just suddenly drop all those hours down to 40. That would absolutely kill projects and be a giant whiplash for the company.

 

[FakePlasticTree]

That's depressing, no shit SEGA keeps releasing Yakuza games every year.

This is only for SEGA Japan right? I don't think employees working under SEGA Europe label are working 60hours/week

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Really wish they'd stop doing that, give developers more time to polish these games, and at the same time give then less hours to work.

 

[Dark Cloud]

I know this is a joke but has Nintendo ever done this? Nintendo always struck me as being potentially the best non-indie place in the whole industry to work. Unbelievable job security, (relatively) hands-off creative management, and no stories of horrible crunch that's not self-imposed (sorry Sakurai).

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I'm not sure how Nintendo works.

 

[Falchion]

That's a really good move.

 

[Deleted member 4093]

I know this is a joke but has Nintendo ever done this? Nintendo always struck me as being potentially the best non-indie place in the whole industry to work. Unbelievable job security, (relatively) hands-off creative management, and no stories of horrible crunch that's not self-imposed (sorry Sakurai).

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Not sure if it was related to hours but I do know there was a good story somewhere with the guys that made starfox on snes. It was a bit negative mood in the story but it was still good nonetheless.

 

[Pancracio17]

Well thats good news. I hope theyre not done yet though.

 

[Dinobot]

A baby step in the right direction.

 

[Lashley]

Small step in the right direction, but a step nonetheless.

 

[Deleted member 2793]

Not sure if it was related to hours but I do know there was a good story somewhere with the guys that made starfox on snes. It was a bit negative mood in the story but it was still good nonetheless.

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There aren't many negative stories about them and the ones we have are even pretty old. Job security at Nintendo is great (that's why they keep so many of their creators in comparison to the other japanese devs), people rarely leave and we do know they give a lot of creative freedom for devs.

We do have positive stories as well with Takahashi saying they were the best to work with and had no problem in letting MonolithSoft delay the original Xenoblade a lot to make a quality product or that interview with Risa Tabata and Aya Kyogoku talking about Nintendo being an easy place to work in as a woman and how they were hiring more women.

 

[DryCreek]

.

 

[Deleted member 5535]

This is interesting and good for a japanese company considering the problem the country have with work culture but the most interesting thing on there is about TMS Entertainment which is a animation company and one of the big ones at that. Considering that it's a animation company, it's nice to see the management of them being able to do that considering that they work on Detective Conan and other things.

Sega does what Nintendon't?

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We never had negative reports about Nintendo so not really. The company is probably one of the best to work in Japan in many fronts.