The unfair treatment of game makers is being brought to light.
The video game industry has been growing ever since Nintendo’s popular release of Super Mario Bros. in 1985 and a cause of this is that many different companies have populated this once-niche market. Unfortunately, not all of these companies have been glitter and gold.
These companies have been hiding truths about the work conditions and have been hiding how they treat their employees. The companies in question are Nintendo, CD Projekt Red, and Kindly Beast.
Nintendo has always seemed like a company that would never find itself in this kind of hot water as they have a history of treating their employees very well. With these new reports coming to light many people are questioning if they want to support them.
These reports have been taken from contracted video game testers who have been treated awfully by their contractors, saying they are offered a full-time job if they do a good job. This makes them work hard so the contractors can abuse that before taking that opportunity away from them.
Many have questioned Nintendo regarding the allegations in the reports, but one question that was left unanswered is if the employees are allowed to use the restroom. Nobody knows why Nintendo would hide this information but it definitely doesn’t look good for the corporate giant.
CD Projekt Red is a second-party company that has made major video game hits such as the Witcher series. Although the reason they are here is a little different than the others. It seems that the problems within CD Projekt Red actually come from higher up where the developers aren’t.
Management and advertisers wanted the developers to release Cyberpunk: 2077 even when it was nowhere near being done. The higher-ups didn’t care and pushed the development team into crunch time which stressed the team out and is generally unhealthy.
After this crunch, management released the game without consent from the developers and it was an unfinished, buggy, unplayable game.
Kindly Beast is an independent company that has made three games, one of those being the critically acclaimed Bendy and the Ink Machine. While not being a completely defunct company, all of their websites and social media platforms have been shut down.
The two owners of Kindly Beast, Mike Mood and theMeatly, have been in hot water with several allegations and unfortunate truths about what has been happening inside of Kindly Beast. Some of these truths are about how Mike Mood and theMeatly treated their employees.
During the production of Showdown Bandit, theMeatly and Mike Mood fired four of their Vice Producers (VPs) because they were deemed useless. A review from a claimed former employee of Kindly Beast on Glassdoor said, "We had a leadership structure full of incredibly successful and knowledgeable individuals who had the entire studio's best interest in mind. They were fired." It is also said in these reviews that the VPs were ignored and fired without warning or reason.
In October 2019, a mass firing happened at Kindly Beast. This left forty-eight employees without a job right before the holidays and without severance pay. The employees weren’t given severance pay because Mike Mood didn’t fire fifty or more employees at the same time.
The employees at Kindly Beast were treated unfairly, were used like puppets, and were fired when they became undesirable. Kindly Beast is no longer active as a company and many associates of them agree that this was for the best.
These companies should really be looked into more by investigators as there are always some shady things happening within the walls that nobody can see. Unfortunately, it is up to the employees to say something and risk losing their job entirely.
I honestly had no idea about the way individuals within the gaming spectrum are treated. It is not far to those who make a living off of it but can not guarantee job security. Thank you for enlightening me.
I read the headline and thought "WHAT?!" I honestly thought that people in the video game industry enjoyed what they were doing. It was surprising to hear that they were being mistreated. How are the employees denied the right to use the restroom?! That's just crazy. I'm glad that this injustice is coming to light. These are things that people need to be made aware of.
Before reading this article I would have never thought of video game companies providing poor conditions for their employees. In fact, I even pictured the employees would have a relatively easy workload. I believe they should have a better environment especially since their work is going into games that many people will love. Those who enter this career shouldn't have to fear inadequate work environments and only look forward to working with others to make future games.
I'm glad that these issues are being brought to light. I can imagine that not all video game companies will have the most pleasant of times but the fact that employees from several levels are affected by poor management is unbelievable. As a company producing a game for others to be consumed; the employees should be subject to an environment where they can provide their best work and in turn a better game. The lack of respect and compromises degrades the video game and ultimately the experience of the consumer. A good product stems from good and healthy work.