Alone in the Dark Has Been Delayed Again to Avoid Developer Crunch over the Christmas Holidays

Tsing

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THQ Nordic has announced that Alone in the Dark will now be released on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 on March 20, 2024, marking what appears to be a second delay for the survival-horror game (and reimagining of the 1992 classic) from Swedish studio Pieces Interactive.

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That's cool.

I don't ever want to work in game development, but if I ever did, I'd want to work for THQ Nordic. They seem more decent than most developers out there.

Crunch time is brutal in game development, and having it fall during a major holiday when people should be at home with their families is outright abusive.

They made the right call. And it is sad that this is kind of surprising in the industry. It really is a **** industry to work in most of the time.

Getting hired and then laid off for specific projects with little to no warning, often having to work brutal hours during development, and then getting underpaid compared to jobs with similar skill sets in other industries, because there are so many "gaming fans" who dream of working developing games, that they can essentially have their pick, treat them like trash and then fire them if they get too uppity.
 
Zarathustra said:
That's cool.

I don't ever want to work in game development, but if I ever did, I'd want to work for THQ Nordic. They seem more decent than most developers out there.

Crunch time is brutal in game development, and having it fall during a major holiday when people should be at home with their families is outright abusive.

They made the right call. And it is sad that this is kind of surprising in the industry. It really is a **** industry to work in most of the time.

Getting hired and then laid off for specific projects with little to no warning, often having to work brutal hours during development, and then getting underpaid compared to jobs with similar skill sets in other industries, because there are so many "gaming fans" who dream of working developing games, that they can essentially have their pick, treat them like trash and then fire them if they get too uppity.
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I have a BS in video game design and programming (I had been a CompSci major but the required math courses f*cked me over, even though I was ace with the coding sh1t). I also worked for a few years during and after college in the game industry as a QA tester. You have no idea how spot on your entire post is. There are a lot of reasons why I ended up giving up on a career in video game development (even though my two biggest dreams since I was a very small child was to either be a video game programmer+designer, or to be an NBA player (which I could tell by the time I was in middle school that the NBA sh1t was definitely not gonna work out)). Wish I had instead spent my time in college doing IT sh1t (since that's mainly that I'm good at anyways) or becoming an automotive mechanic (another thing that had long been a dream of mine). I'm just not into the whole thing anymore. F*ck the video game industry (especially in its current form).

Mad props to THQ Nordic for making the right call here.
 
Zarathustra said:
Crunch time is brutal in game development, and having it fall during a major holiday when people should be at home with their families is outright abusive.
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There are a lot more industries where it is crappy to work and unlike in game developpement you have to work the holidays as that is when those make the most monay.

I know a company where you are not allowed to take time off after September due to the increased end of year workload
 
Denpepe said:
There are a lot more industries where it is crappy to work and unlike in game developpement you have to work the holidays as that is when those make the most monay.

I know a company where you are not allowed to take time off after September due to the increased end of year workload
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Well, if they are making more money they must be paying more overtime, which at least partially makes this a little better.

Many of the companies I am familiar with here in the U.S. categorize most office workers as "exempt", meaning they get paid a fixed salary like management, not an hourly wage like a factory worker, no matter how much they work, and the expectation is that they put in whatever time is needed by the company.

It's an abusive practice, but unfortunately it is the norm for anyone who is college educated and working in an office. Worker protections were written to exempt management, and the companies then just started categorizing everyone as management.
 
I kind of want to buy their games just because.

...time to go look what games they've made in recent years.
 
LeRoy_Blanchard said:
I kind of want to buy their games just because.

...time to go look what games they've made in recent years.
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You know, that's a good idea. I have a feeling they don't make titles that I would be really into, but at the same time you kind of do want to reward the good guys in the industry.

Maybe Generaztion Zero could be fun, though that may only have been published by them, not developed by them.

What do you know. It is confusing. THQ Nordic is really just a publisher for Embracer group now, and they publish a ton of titles, many of them acquired from others, so it is difficult to clearly say how this "reward the good guys" strategy reqlly would work.

The Alone in the Dark remake - for instance - is being developed by a company named "Pieces Interactive", but is being published by THQ Nordic. Pieces Interactive was acquired by Embracer in 2017.

Either way, this suggests maybe Embracer themselves are the positive force here, and that would be huge considering how many studios they have acquired in recent years.

Maybe shouldn't be a surprise that a Swedish company - albeit a big one - might be a little more employee friendly than say EA, or Activision/Blizzard.

A guy I know was recently acquired into Blizzard, and while he doesn't talk about his work much, I have noticed a distinct level of change in his feelings about work. I get the impression being sucked into Blizzard may not be a very positive experience. I think they acquired them just to get the talent, it sounds like their titles were pretty much unceremoniously shut down after the acquisition.
 
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Denpepe said:
I would not call them all good at embracer https://gamerant.com/embracer-layoffs-2023/
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I don't associate layoffs with being bad. You can't expect a business to keep people on the payroll they don't need.

Sometimes you wind up with more people than you need, and you have to cut back a little bit. This is especially common in mergers and acquisitions as when you combine companies you often wind up with extra people doing the same jobs unnecessarily, and Embracer has certainly been doing lots acquisitions.

Employment is not intended to be permanent.

I've been laid off 3 times in the past. Once due to the financial crisis, and twice due to major projects being shut down. While it is stressful to have to look for a new job, as a professional you usually get a decent severance package, so it is not all bad. In two out of the three times I actually wound up making more money than I otherwise would. Best one was when I got a 10 week severance package, and had a new job that paid more within a week.

The only time it sucked was during the financial crisis.
 
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2 years existence? Pretty sure Time Splitters is pretty old.

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Oh they were shut down years ago and reestablished apparently. In the 2 years since their reestablishment they were closed. Now it makes sense.
 
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