Brink studio Splash Damage announces shift to four-day week
On-site at its London office.
Splash Damage, the developer behind Brink, Gears Tactics and the upcoming Transformers: Reactivate, has announced it is moving to a four-day work week for in-office staff.
The London-based studio announced the change to employees yesterday, before making it public today via Twitter ahead of the games industry conference Develop held in Brighton this week.
Reaction from staff on social media has been positive, with numerous staff sharing the news via Twitter this afternoon and labelling it as an "exciting" and "bold" step.
Splash Damage is headquartered in Bromley, south London, and employs more than 400 workers. Some are hybrid - and this change does not apply to them.
The company is part of the vast Tencent empire, and in turn owns Derby-based Bulkhead, developer of The Turing Test and Battalion 1944.
Bulkhead had already moved to a four-day week while part of Splash Damage, after approval from company bosses.
Guardians of the Galaxy developer Eidos Montreal moved to a four-day week in 2021, in a move it said was designed "not to condense the working hours into four days, but rather to review our ways of doing things and our quality time invested, with the aim of working better".
The idea is still uncommon in the video games industry at large, but support for it has been growing. The Barcelona-based Bandai Namco Mobile recently trialled a four-day week for its staff. In France, striking Ubisoft Paris employees called for a move to a four-day week earlier this year.