Crunch culture killed Ensemble Studios

By Oli Welsh Published 14 March, 2010

While Pandemic's "own money" cursed it.

Former employees of Ensemble Studios and Pandemic Studios have blamed the developers' demise on their own company cultures, rather than the publishers that owned and closed them, Microsoft and EA.

Speaking at GDC, Paul Bettner, who worked at Ensemble for 12 years, refused to blame Microsoft for the studio's closure. "The reality is that every single game we shipped took twice as long as we said it was going to take, and cost twice as much to make.

"Microsoft is a public company, they answer to their shareholders, and we were simply too expensive."

In his impassioned talk during the "rants" session, Bettner, now working at iPhone developer NewToy, blamed himself for the cost, inefficiency and poor quality of life caused by Ensemble's dependence on long, "crunch" working hours.

Ensemble had a company culture where "everyone was a workaholic", developers worked late and slept at the office, and were addicted to the rush of success of the Age of Empires series.

"I watched this happen and I did almost nothing to stop it. As an employee, and later as a manager, I didn't take a stand. I just kept hoping for that next high," Bettner said.

He mentioned the EA Spouse and Rockstar Spouse controversies, and quoted "devastating" statistics indicating that over a third of people in the games industry expect to leave it within five years.

"This is a horrible vicious cycle. We burn out all our best people. We destroy these precious artists, we wreck their families and we sacrifice their youth. So they leave, and they take all their experience with them."

Bettner's comments, which received a standing ovation from the GDC audience, were echoed by Carey Chico, formerly of Pandemic Studios which was recently shut down by EA.

It was the developer's culture - its lack of accountability and inability to hit milestones internally - that sealed its fate, Chico said. He said the problems began with the studio's venture capital windfall when it merged with BioWare.

"We were very good for a long period of time in the middle there," Chico said, referring to the time when the studio made titles like Full Spectrum Warrior and Mercenaries.

"Then, we got our own money. And that was probably the beginning of the fall."

Having to hit milestones for publishers and work to their schedules "are actually good restraints in a lot of ways", Chico said.

Once it had its own funding, Pandemic decided to develop its own technology and take games close to completion before trying to sell them to publishers, but lacked discipline, said Chico, now president of new developer GlobeX.

"When you have your own money, what happens is that you have to maintain your own accountability internally, and if you don't have that, you just f**k everything up."

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Bill Gates is Evil #1 2 years ago

    he said fuck!

  • Shikasama #2 2 years ago

    I'm sorry but when you get to that level in your chosen business you are supposed to know what you are doing. I've got absolutely no sympathy for anyone even vaguely responsible for that. It's always the bottom tier that suffer for mismangement

  • Springchicken #3 2 years ago

    Sounds like they lacked disciprine.

  • Stoatboy #4 2 years ago

    @Shikasama: Good luck with the world. If you don't ever find yourself out of your depth you'll be doing better than the rest of us. Tell me, what's your area of expertise? Let me come along and pass judgement on you from my ivory tower.

  • Sunyavadin #5 2 years ago

    "Chico, now president of new developer GlobeX."

    President of Globex corporation?

  • The-Bodybuilder #6 2 years ago

    Great incite, and at least stops the publisher-bashing that happens here all the time.
    That statistic on over a 3rd planning to leave is quite damning. Good thing I decided not to pursue my initial plan of going into the game development industry mid-way through college.

  • The-Bodybuilder #7 2 years ago

    LOL @ Sunyavadin

  • smelly #8 2 years ago

    As someone who used to work in this industry - making games for snotty nosed ungreatful kids who complain on forums and never really truelly enjoy what is given to them..

    All i can say about this is.......

  • AOFanboi #9 2 years ago

    @Springchicken

    Probably not discipline, but planning. It is better to cut a "luxury" feature if something takes more time than planned than to grind the devs with overtime etc. An hour spent programming when you are worn out, drowsy or - as has been rumored for parts of the software industry - high on amphetamines, can lead to two hours wasted the next day looking for and fixing the bugs you added in your stupor, for a net loss of three hours calendar time.

    The problem is not the crunch time, but that companies do not learn from experience - the first cases of 100 hour work weeks should have taught them to avid that at all costs afterwards, but they are still at it...

    Completion dates should be modeled after Blizzard's "when it's ready".

  • Vroom #10 2 years ago

    Excellent article and comments thread. Steady on people!

    That 1/3 stat is quite stark isn't it?

    Seems like some haven't learned the lessons from watching Romero and co @ id in the early days.

    Nice to see the chaps talking about mistakes so honestly and publically.

  • penhalion #11 2 years ago

    A while ago I ranted that games taking 3 or more years to make was purely down to poor management and a lack of any real deadlines. In my experience in the industry I noticed, very early on, that the bigger the team the less work got done on a daily basis. You just need to look at the rediculous credits lists of most games these days to see that happening.

    The companies that do release in a timely fashion are usually the ones that use third party engines and just concentrate on the game, instead of the technology behind it. Much like a movie director wouldn't expect to employ a camera creation team but, would have several camera men who knew how to operated the hardware. The same with sound and lighting.

    I'm glad to see Paul Bettner making his rant as, working in the industry, you often wonder if you are really the only one who sees how stupid the internal workings of some of these studios are. I'm amazed that square enix is still around for instance and wasn't suprised at their financial difficulties of a few years ago.

  • Ofoug #12 2 years ago

    @ Sunyavadin: well spotted! I though I that name was vaguely familiar =)

    I remember reading recently that the 40 hour 5 day * 8 hours work week was apparently proven to be the most optimal for profitable production in just about any industry. I'll go check it up when I have time later since I'm unsure if I remember correctly, but I think an article said that plenty of studies and even Henry Ford himself experimented with different work hours and saw that the 40 hour week was simply the most profitable. Even if you push more work hours into a week, they are not more productive in the long term since there are limits to endurance and many other factors for the vast majority of people. I think this goes for any business, game development as well.

    I wonder if the reason many game developers still seem to push their employees with constant crunchtime is that there are so many others who are eager to take their place? In other words, if you burn out 5 people on a project the company knows they easily have 50 more eager and waiting to take their place. I have no idea what the facts are here, just an idea that maybe since it's still a rather new line of business compared to many others, many company managers perhaps see it that way and haven't learned to look at what works in the long run yet?

  • Slipstream #13 2 years ago

    "I watched this happen and I did almost nothing to stop it. As an employee, and later as a manager, I didn't take a stand. I just kept hoping for that next high," Bettner said.
    "This is a horrible vicious cycle. We burn out all our best people. We destroy these precious artists, we wreck their families and we sacrifice their youth. So they leave, and they take all their experience with them."

    Another article that speaks volumes of truth about the current state of our industry, you'd often hear about how hard people work towards the completion of a game and that it's immediatly onto the next project.
    What you don't hear is how work ethic ought to be rectified let alone one being voiced infront of an audience.

    It's impressive to see a man stand up and admit his failings, and it's clear to see that he has learned a valuble lesson from his past experience, also showing empathy towards budding and experienced developers earns him my respect.


    Edited by 1 at 14/03/10 @ 10:58

  • Markusdragon #14 2 years ago

    Sounds like they were given too much slack, then hanged themselves with it.

  • laharl80 #15 2 years ago

    What a whiner!Try getting a real job on a real wage.

  • Murton #16 2 years ago

    I personally don't think that either the developer or the publisher should accept 100% blame when a dev house is closed. The publisher closed it so they must accept some blame for that decision rather than trying to fix whatever the problem was and the studio must accept some blame for the problem that lead to the decision to close.

    While I appreciate what these two guys are saying in that they don't blame the publisher like many others would (and indeed do) they are still giving a black and white description by accepting all of the blame in the studio.

  • sfp_noodle #17 2 years ago

    this is quite possibly the most HONEST thing i have ever heard in my 15 years of gaming. MS and sony execs take note

  • fredtheshred #18 2 years ago

    very honest. quite a damnable speech. proof that long working hours does not mean better production.

  • GreyBeard #19 2 years ago

    @Murton

    So true, its never completely black and white.

    Developing a big, high quality game, is a complex undertaking and when you're doing anything complex problems can creep up from all sides.

    What I'd hate for people to take from this is the impression that lowered productivity is typically a result of laziness on the part of the developers, when the reality is that its most often the fault of project goals constantly changing because someone, somewhere high up on the production chain (could be studio management, could be the publisher) doesn't have a clear vision of what they want and the capabilities of the team/tech to achieve said goals.

    Very few people want to be stuck on the development equivalent of the Vietnam war, there are few things more disheartening than seeing work being scrapped/progress being rolled-back because the "vision" for the project has changed. This isn't to say that development shouldn't be responsive to feedback, but honestly I've worked on far too many projects where inadequate pre-production and/or a lack of consistency in intent has resulted in failure.

    A big issue in my opinion is that as budgets have risen, production and publishing and are less inclined to trust their teams creative instincts because the financial risks are too great. This is fatal because a good team is one that shares a united creative vision. Once people start constantly second-guessing themselves beacuse they aren't sure what the game "is" this week, you're on a slippery slope to mediocrity or worse.


  • Shikasama #20 2 years ago

    You know what stoatboy, you're right. When companies are closed due to horrific management (causing X amount of people to lose their jobs), we should just say how cool it is that the management realised they are shit.

    Games companies always get a free pass from gamers but if he was talking about how he set up say...a Macdonalds and worked like that, driving it into the ground through his own inability to be effective, people wouldn't be 'admiring his honesty'.

    It's OK though, I'm sure it's worth him being honest for people losing their jobs.

  • BigJonno #21 2 years ago

    I've been doing a fair bit of work on this at uni recently. Productivity peaks at a 40 hour work week and then rapidly declines until, at 80 hours, it's the same as for 40 hours. The burnout factor is a cyclical problem. Poor management leads to crunching and other problems, which leads to burnout. Experienced people within the industry leave, leading to management positions being given to industry insiders without enough management experience, or industry outsiders without enough games experience. Then the cycle of poor management begins again.

  • Stoatboy #22 2 years ago

    @Shikasama: I never condoned their actions, not once. I never even praised their honesty in coming out and admitting they were wrong (which is surely better than keeping quiet and not passing on the knowledge they've gained). All I pointed out was that, without knowing the facts you're in no position to be so judgemental. Get yourself into a position where delivering a high quality product on time is your responsibility, and see what you ask of your staff.

    If everything you've worked for years to build up is reliant on getting say an E3 demo ready when you're game isn't looking particularly solid, you'd be daft not to ask your staff to pull late nights to avoid getting crucified by the press and thousands of internet keyboard warriors.

  • Thunderbolt #23 2 years ago

    Pity Emsemble closed as I rather enjoyed Halo Wars

  • paketep #24 2 years ago

    Even if it took twice as long to finish their games, I doubt that Microsoft didn't make a lot of money with each of them.

    So I'm still blaming Microsoft. Those bastards.

  • GruttyFuttock #25 2 years ago

    @ Thought_Criminal
    Nail firmly hit on head sir.

  • HuggyAtHome #26 2 years ago

    @GreyBeard

    Spot on sir.

    This sort of problem crops up in any large initiative or project. As a Project Manager in finance I am used to getting internal and vendor developers working crunch time and /or missing deadlines because sponsors and customers can't make up their mind what they want. It is often not helped by promoting and 'rewarding' very good and previously successful small teams with much larger bits of work than they can handle...the technical ability is there but the management and co-ordination skills just aren't.

  • LOLLERS #27 2 years ago

    Spot on, Thought_Criminal

    +1 doesn't seem enough.

  • Cafuddled #28 2 years ago

    I concur

  • PatTheMav #29 2 years ago

    It's as simple as this: Coders, Artists and their like are the backbone of every gaming company - but despite this they're treated like a dirty workforce - expendable, exchangable and low-paid, as for every burned-out coder there's another poor and idealistic soul coming out of university with a BSc. willing to work in the "gaming industry".

    There are some top positions for coders in the industry, but most devs end up in small to middle-sized startups or casual games companies, whose only concern are revenues and how to improve the numbers. A small fraction of devs is kept as they're the ones with experience and knowledge about the employed systems, the rest of the bunch is completely exchangable.

    This is how developers and artists are treated by middle-management, sales-people and that whole spineless junk in every company and unless there's a change of mind in those heads about who's doing the real work there, things probably won't change.

    Until then, developers are the blue-collar-workers of the games industry, keeping the whole thing running, doing overtime and getting underpaid.

  • Jesus: Action Figure #30 2 years ago

    "try as they might to hide their inadequacies with different colourred post-it notes "

    Haha! One creative director I worked with spent a couple of days putting up different coloured stars all over the walls. Soon as a coder walked in and saw it, he remarked 'Hasn't he heard of excel?'

    Anyway, another reason that crunch happens, in my experience, is that management are so desperate for the work, they undercut the competition to win a contract.

    This means they have less money to employ enough people, so the few that are left end up doing twice the work. It becomes a mountain to climb, without the right equipment...

  • kangarootoo #31 2 years ago

    @Shikasama

    Someone making mistakes and learning from them is better than someone making mistakes in ignorance. And everybody makes mistakes.

    And I'm not sure he was asking for anyone's sympathy.

  • AnonymouslyYours #32 2 years ago

    I’ll try to keep this straight and to the point. Having worked there since 1996 until the studio closed my experience was quite a bit different. I can say that we crunched quite a bit in the early years:1996-1999. After about 3 or 4 years we began keeping our crunches limited to 10 AM to 10 PM Monday-Thursday with a normal 8 hour day on Friday. For much of that time we had amazing catered meals where the spouses and significant-others were invited to join. Having talked to my industry friends and peers ES crunch was nothing compared to the 6-7 day-a-week, 12-hour day death marches that other companies faced. I’d love to see an EA employee from the “EA Spouse” era post about his or her experiences with REAL hard-core crunch. To compare us to companies run like just doesn’t make sense.

    If had to say what killed ES it would be 2 things:

    1. With so many veteran developers on the payroll and some excessive spending habits the studio was expensive to run in comparison to other Microsoft Game Studios. This put a huge target on the head of ES when it came time for MGS cutbacks.

    2. Don Mattrick, senior VP of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, was freeing up cash and headcount to use Microsoft dollars to buy his own unproven studio Big Park games and combine it into MGS. Thus turning his shares of Big Park into loads of MSFT stock. For those who don’t know Mattrick is the same man who presided over EA during the EA Spouse $15 million employee lawsuit and promoted the EA crunch culture. Fun guy...

    Anonymously yours,