Elden Ring is the biggest game of the year. It has catapulted FromSoftware into the mainstream conversation like never before, eclipsing the likes of Horizon Forbidden West with its inhospitable open world and unforgivable boss battles.

Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro all had their fans and were massive successes in their own right, but there’s something different about Elden Ring. It’s the culmination of Hidetaka Miyazaki’s artistic vision that many are hailing as a masterpiece.

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But the games we love are all direct products of human beings. Artists, designers, writers, programmers, QA, and so many other disciplines banding together to try and make the impossible a reality. This is a game that took years to make, and likely resulted in countless sleepless nights and personal sacrifices to see it over the finish line.

Rift Apart

Crunch is a common theme across the games industry, with companies big and small doing everything they can to combat its presence in the game development pipeline. Sadly it feels inevitable in some circumstances when it really shouldn’t be. Insomniac Games didn’t crunch at all on Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, resulting in a gorgeous and confident platformer that didn’t feel hamstrung in any regard. Mass Effect 2, generally hailed as not just the best Mass Effect but one of the best games ever, was also made with no crunch. You don’t need to crunch to make great games.

Recent reports have surfaced following the game’s launch that paint FromSoftware as a rather problematic place of employment, especially for women. A number of workers have made anonymous reports on CareerConnection, a website that allows workers to report details of their wages, working conditions, and overall feelings around a company’s culture.

Some reports are more recent, while others date back to more than a decade ago. Despite the variance of timeframes there are several common threads to be found across all the testimonies, such as wages being comparatively low compared to much of the industry, while long hours are often encouraged to help complete projects and reach specific milestones. It seems workers aren’t fairly compensated given how much effort is being put in, like there’s a feeling of obligation to keep working in fear of retaliation or letting the team down.

Sekiro

This is a huge problem across creative industries, and something we’ve heard from game development far too often. We typically see more reports and exposes on crunch culture in Western studios, with media coverage around working conditions more common, but the fact Japanese employees are making their plight known speaks to how serious some of these issues are. The studio is particularly poor for women if the testimonies are to be believed. There is no accommodation for childcare or maternity leave, with those who give birth often expected to give up their positions at the company as a consequence.

Reviews also point to past issues of sexual harassment and a distinct lack of female employees across the company, which is perhaps why the overall policy is so outdated and crass. I’m glad FromSoftware’s long history of workplace practices have come to light, because now it means there’s a chance that something will be done about them. Or not - because I’ve hardly seen so much as a whisper from fans of Elden Ring about such reports bubbling to the surface and what it might mean for their enjoyment of their favourite game ever. The thing is, you can still support a game like this and raise your voice in support of better industry standards, especially for the workers who are making the games you love so much a reality.

Elden Ring

FromSoftware has gone through an unparalleled transformation in recent years. Demon’s Souls was a niche classic that laid the foundations for Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and now Elden Ring - all of which are blockbusters in a way. The company would have grown, evolved, and changed its philosophy to meet changing industry standards. Knowing all of this, it feels archaic to still be abiding by low wages and backward working conditions that will drive talent away and prevent their creative juices from flowing. Happier and more content workers will result in more ambitious results, otherwise you run the risk of burning out or losing all morale. We’ve seen this happen before, so much so that many decide to leave game development altogether because the toll it takes is too heavy.

Employees at the company deserve better, and I hope the success of Elden Ring and emergence of these reports will be two equal catalysts in enacting change. Hidetaka Miyazaki is the current President & CEO of FromSoftware, so perhaps someone should tell him that his masochistic approach to game design shouldn’t apply to real life. Pay your employees more, give them time off when required, and foster their talent. Otherwise, you risk pushing them away and ruining the magic that often comes from making games.

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