Game Devs Allege Extreme 'Crunch' Overtime at 'Mortal Kombat 11' Studio NetherRealm

Days after Mortal Kombat was inducted into the World Videogame Hall of Fame, multiple sources at its creator (Warner Bros Interactive studio NetherRealm) are alleging a toxic workplace with 100-hour workweeks, Variety reports, citing seven current and former full-time employees and contractors:

Reports of low pay and the crunch of extreme overtime as workers tried to finish the game on time initially surfaced about NetherRealm Studios on social media earlier in April, but those issues appear to be symptomatic of a long-term poisonous work culture at the studio, according to seven people who spoke to Variety -- five of whom asked that their names not be used for fear of reprisals... The common thread among all the sources was that they said they felt the pressure to work long hours came with the threat of being replaced or denied a chance at a more... One current employee said that he and others at the studio have been working 60 to 70 hours per week, seven days a week since January. While he said various factors are to blame for the crunch, such as poor communication and mismanagement, he cited a January marketing event for 'Mortal Kombat 11,' called MK Day, which put the studio behind significantly...

The catch-up still persists, even though 'Mortal Kombat 11' was released on April 23. Problems with in-game currency and exploits have the studio working on its third patch to fix glitches, and it already has two more patches planned. When asked how the studio higher-ups are positioning this 'catch-up' work, the current employee said that they phrase it very carefully. 'I think they walk that fine line really well,' he said. 'So it's a lot of implying, not up-front. They don't tell us, 'You have to work these hours.' They also don't tell that to any of the temporary/contract employees. When we interviewed all of our contractor/temporary employees, my direct manager would tell them, 'Overtime isn't mandatory, but everyone is expected to do their fair share.' Meaning when we have it -- because even before we started interviewing and building up our temp team, we already knew there's going to come a point where we're going to start crunching because we've been doing this since time immemorial, [on] every project.'

Some full-timers have taken to living at the studio when working the most intense periods of crunch, he said, sleeping in their office or on an inflatable sofa in their cubicle. One employee has even been spotted wearing a bathrobe while in the studio. One source said that for some of the temporary positions, it's easy enough to replace those who don't crunch with a new batch of eager contractors. Many temporary employees are recruited from DePaul University, the person said, and are students who are willing to work a nine-month contract for $14 an hour in exchange for the chance to work on a triple-A franchise.

In a statement to Variety, NetherRealm Studios said they were 'actively looking into all allegations' as 'we take these matters very seriously and are always working to improve our company environment.' But last week James Longstreet, a developer who worked on 2011's 'Mortal Kombat,' posted on Twitter that 'The [Mortal Kombat] team's stance is that crunch works, and MK games are always profitable, so it's clearly the right thing to do.

'It's wrong -- crunch doesn't work, the workers don't see the profit (bonuses at WB games are capped to a small percentage of salary), and it ruins lives.'

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