How Fortnite’s success led to tense crunchy months at Epic Games

Fortnite's popularity has transformed Epic Games. But the explosive growth of the game led to many months of intense crunch of Epic employees and freelancers. Some of them complain of excessive pressure and long working shifts that support the success and profitability of Fortnite . All this led to the creation of a toxic, stressful environment in the company.

In a dozen or so interviews conducted by Polygon over several months, current and former employees say that they regularly had to work 70 hours a week, and some even reported from weekly weeks. Freelance employees from the Epic Quality Assurance and Customer Support departments talk about a stressful and hostile environment in which recycling (although officially considered voluntary) is considered a mandatory requirement of the company.

Freelancers are paid to recycle, but developers report creating a culture of fear, in which they are expected to recycle hours as part of their working time. Some have reported health problems due to many months of work from 70-hour weeks.

Stressful processing is called “crunch”, and sometimes it stretches for weeks or even months. In the gaming industry, it is usually associated with the period before the immediate release of the game. But in our era of “early access,” constant updates, downloadable content, and games as a service, a crunch can be a constant problem.
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Some people and organizations, such as Game Workers Unite , are calling on gaming industry employees to form unions to protect their rights. Many gaming industry employees are hired as freelancers, thus limiting their rights .

Epic released Fortnite Battle Royale as a free game in September 2017. In it, a hundred players are dumped on the island and fight with each other until only one remains. The game came out after the summer release of Fortnite: Save the World , in which teams of players work together, collecting loot to protect against hordes of zombies. Although Epic spent many years releasing the original Save the World , it quickly launched Battle Royale to the market in response to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds success for Windows and the early release of this game on consoles.

Fortnite Battle Royale quickly became a cultural phenomenon, making Epic millions of dollars a day and funding its rapid growth. At the moment it is the most popular game in the world, especially among children. It is regularly updated: there are new weapons and map modifications, which millions of players and fans vividly watch. In just a few months, some of the most popular Fortnite streamers have become multimillionaires.

Fortnite Battle Royale is part of a broader video game trend called “games as a service” (popular games as a service): popular games are constantly updated, new modes, skins, weapons and characters are added to keep the audience playing. Such a departure from the standard release of individual products meant for game creators a continuous series of impending deadlines.

Polygon interviewed current and former Epic employees, including full-time staff, managers and freelancers working in the development, quality control and customer service departments. They all asked to hide their names for fear of retribution by Epic or other employers in the gaming industry. Epic requires that both current and former employees sign a non-disclosure agreement restricting the discussion of the company's actions.

“On average, I work 70 hours a week,” says one of the employees. “Most likely, no less than 50 or even 100 other Epic employees work on such a schedule. I know people who have to work 100 hours a week. The company gives us unlimited vacations, but it is almost impossible to use this time. If I take a vacation, the load on others will increase, so no one wants to be "bad."

“The biggest problem is that we constantly make patches. Top management seeks to stretch the popularity of Fortnite as long as possible, especially given the emerging new competitors. ”

An Epic spokesperson acknowledged that employees have to withstand excessive stress. “Our people work a lot on Fortnite and other Epic projects,” a company representative told us in an email interview. “Emergencies such as working 100 hours a week are very rare, and in such cases we immediately try to find a solution so that this does not happen again.”

But the requirement to meet the needs of the players and maintain the pace of development of the game made some people experience a constant crunch.

“Top management constantly reacts to the situation and makes changes,” the source told us. “Everything needs to be done instantly. We are not allowed to waste time on anything. If something breaks - for example, a weapon - then we can not just turn it off and fix it in the next patch. The error needs to be fixed immediately, and at the same time we continue to work on the patch for the next week. Everything is very tough. ”

“I do not sleep much. I irritatedly behave with loved ones. I do not have enough energy to get into the city. The most important achievement is a day off from work. If I take a vacation on a Saturday, I feel guilty. I am not forced to work like this, but if I do not do it, the work will not be done. ”

Epic reported that the sudden success of Fortnite Battle Royale created difficulties for it. " Fortnite has achieved far more success than we could have expected," said a company spokesman. “Thanks to incredible energy and perseverance, every Epic employee is responsible for this success. The Fortnite development team is rapidly expanding the game to increase its audience; Unreal Engine developers have launched a large-scale optimization project to achieve a stable 60fps and support for seven platforms; all other employees of the company have begun work on Fortnite to maintain the pace of its development. ”

According to data from many sources, it is understood that crunches are an expected part of their work for Epic employees. Such an attitude towards crunches has become a standard in the AAA games industry, and is consistently noted in the stories about crunches from other studios .

"I know people who refused to work on weekends, and then we missed the deadline due to the fact that their part of the project was not completed, and they were fired," said another source. "People lose their jobs because they do not want to work on such a schedule."

Another source said: “I have friends who said they would not stand it anymore. Some wept. Crunch never ends. ”

“We usually worked 50 or 60 hours a week, occasionally 70 hours,” says one source who worked as a freelance employee in the quality control department. “If my eight-hour shift was over and I asked my boss if I should stay, then he looked at me like an idiot. Official processing is not necessary, but in practice you are told that you need to stay at work. If you did not recycle, then this is a bad characteristic for you. ”

Another source said that freelancers who refused to process were often found to be replaced. “You have a contract. It can last three months, maybe a year. But if you do not stay after the shift, then most likely the contract will not be extended. ”

“Management needs us to be cogs that can be replaced,” says the source. “The situation was this: come to work and work as much as we need. They put freelancers in such a position that if they do not recycle, they will not remain in office. ”

“One of the managers once said:“ just dial more bodies ”. So they called freelancers: bodies. And when they finish their work, you can get rid of them. They can be replaced by fresh people who do not have "toxic" habits of being dissatisfied.

When asked about the workload, an Epic spokesperson replied: “All Epic freelancers have a fixed-term contract, usually between six and twelve months. Epic decides to extend the contract based on the quality of the work and the willingness to work according to the schedule necessary to comply with the dates of critical releases. "

A company spokesperson added that on average, Epic freelancers are recycling "less than five hours a week."

But for those working on Fortnite , after the success of the game, the usual rhythm of the graphics has changed a lot. “We have a gym in our office,” one source told us. “Theoretically, it is available for all who have free time, but free time in work is not allowed. We are constantly in a state of crunch. In such games with constant support, the crunch never ends. You always have to create new content and new functionality. ”

“I worked no less than 12 hours a day, seven days a week, at least four to five months,” says one source. "Many of us had to stay at work until 3:00 in the morning."

Many sources report that refusing to work after a shift is a serious obstacle to career growth. Bosses expect employees to stay at work and not complain about anything. "

“There is no discussion,” says one source. "We just say:" I hope you did not have plans for the weekend, because you need to do this and that. " And if you have any reasons for a day off, then it must be something serious, otherwise it will have a bad effect on your career. ”

A representative from Epic told us that “Epic's career growth depends on the quality of the work results and assessments of whether the employee will be able to cope with the tasks in a higher vacant position.”

A source who worked in the customer support department and was engaged in solving the problems of players, said: "We had a jump from 20-40 tickets per day to about 3 thousand tickets per day." The source added that Epic quickly hired new employees to cope with this flood, but the problem cannot be solved instantly by simply expanding the staff. “It happened so fast. Just yesterday, we were a small group of people. The next day we were simply told: “Oh, by the way, 50 new people will appear in this shift without the slightest experience of work”. ”

“The managers were very unfriendly. When I had problems, and I reported them to my manager, I was ignored and the manager never spoke with me again. They just didn't care. When I started complaining, one of my managers told me to shut my mouth and warned me that they would fire me. They professed the attitude of "you went, I will achieve my own," and the leadership did nothing to prevent it. "

“We were told that we would have to work 50 hours a week and close 200 tickets per day. This is very tiring because we had to work very quickly. When the management reported this, I started crying because I was tired and exhausted, but they didn’t seem to care. ”

Epic Games is located in the city of Cary (North Carolina), its staff is about a thousand people. The company was founded in 1991 by Tim Sweeney, who remains its CEO. Today, there are more than 200 vacancies on the Epic website.

Some employees said that working in the company has many positive aspects: good pay, an excellent bonus system, career growth and an active social life. One source said that he personally had never encountered a crunchy, despite working on Fortnite , and called Epic the ideal employer. But the same source admitted that some of his colleagues do recycle.

“One of the groups that has to process a lot in Epic is the producers,” the source said. “They have a huge load. Producers are constantly working, working, working. It looks like madness. ”

“This is a hard, monotonous, tense life,” says one source. “Everyone treats this with understanding. You get paid more than most people can earn in any job elsewhere. Your time is bought and counted; shut your mouth, do not arise and do your work. "

“Most of the employees are not against crunchy, if you give them a triple salary as bonuses. Many people leave. They come and think to themselves: “I will endure it until I get a bonus four times, and then I’ll quit.”

When work began to pile up, Epic tried to solve the problem by hiring additional staff. At first, the Fortnite Battle Royale team consisted of 50 people, but when it became more successful, it more than tripled.

“We were constantly hiring new people, and after the release of Fortnite in 2017, we doubled our full-time staff,” said an Epic representative. “During this time, we were always eager to hire the best people. The limiting factor of employment is not money, but the speed with which we can find and hire highly qualified personnel. ”

“We also worked under a contract with excellent independent studios that contributed to Fortnite and reduced the burden on our staff. In addition, we improved the process of planning releases of functional Fortnite , so that several teams work in parallel and we can reduce the load on each individual team. ”

But our sources report that these initiatives have not solved the fundamental problem of long processing. “The development process would be very fast,” says one source. “It implemented things that we didn’t even know about. It was insane, I have not seen anything like this in any of my projects. ”

“Crunchy was everywhere. Even the economic department and office managers. The only ones who managed to avoid crunches are essentially those who forced people to go on crunches. ”

“I got to the point where I hoped to receive a letter that tonight, or at least on the weekend, there would be no crunch. I waited for someone to say: "Tomorrow you do not need to come to work."

Many sources told us that until the success of Fortnite Epic, it was possible to maintain a good work culture. “We reworked when needed,” one source said. “But we always had enough time to prepare for a crunch, and it was not mandatory. We knew what functions we would need to work on, what was the plan, and we had enough time. ”

“When Fortnite Battle Royale became popular, everything changed: now it was necessary to implement a feature, and people were forced to stay at work until it was completed. Therefore, instead of a month to prepare, as before, we sometimes had something for about a day. We definitely had to stay at work until the task was completed. The marketing department promised something to the users, and we were told that it had to be done. ”

“It was the most aggressive schedule I've ever seen. And people in all departments burned out. ”

“We reacted to these problems by aggressively building up our staff, improving the planning process and experimenting with approaches,” said an Epic spokesman. The company introduced a mandatory two-week vacation in winter and summer, covering all staff.

Most of our sources said that complaints to the Epic department for working with staff almost did not help.

“Some of my colleagues were patient at first, but over time they became more and more annoyed because of long shifts. Once they could just leave the office and we never saw them again. Nobody talked about them. If I asked: “Well, [this person] doesn’t work here anymore?” In response, I got strange looks. ”

The year before the release of Fortnite Battle Royale , Epic lowered the quality control department, seeking to move to automated systems. But after the success, Battle Royale suspended this initiative and quickly hired new freelancers.

“It was a huge hustle, and the offices didn’t seem to be cleaning up,” says one source from the quality control department. “We were there like herring in a can. There were four people on each side of the table. ”

“Once I was at a meeting, and in the end it came to the quality control department, but no one said a word. Then one tester came out and asked what the company was going to do with the crunches. When will the pace of work slow down? The atmosphere in the room has changed. The manager said that they are trying to solve this problem. It was an unanswered answer. Soon after, the tester who left the question left the company. ”

Epic sought to reduce the seriousness of the crunch by creating two-week update schedules that included patches and new features. The company also introduced a work shift system. But the situation has not improved.

“If the assembly was released and received a negative reaction from the players, then someone at the top said:“ We need to fix it, ”“ says one source. “And they began to tear off all employees from their work, people were told to cancel their plans, because they would have to do it until the task was completed. And it never stopped. Such a system is great for supporting the community and players. But she has her own price. ”

From time to time, top management of Epic distributed directives that refining should be voluntary, but on the ground it had little effect.

“Young employees turned out to be the most vulnerable,” says one source.“I tried to tell them to go home, but they answered:“ I want to prove myself and get promoted, so you need to be in the office and work. ” The competition is very high, they are ambitious and they think that working 100 hours is normal. "

“It kills people. Need to change something. I see no opportunity to continue at the same pace next year. At first, this was normal, because Fortnite was a great success and we were pleased with it. We were solving problems that were new to Epic: managing a large, global game as an online service. But now the workload is just endless. ”