'We've got the industry's best benefits package,' reckons head of HR
Reatlime Worlds has today unveiled an expanded employment policy which grants overtime pay to its staff.
Conveniently coming as the studio reminds the world that it has over 40 open vacancies as it finishes work on APB and production of its second post-Crackdown project continues, the new policy joins a raft of other perks a job at the Scottish studio offers.
The studio says that offering overtime pay is a handy antidote to relying on staff to work intensive 'crunch' periods.
The studio has what it reckons is "the most generous benefits packages in the industry which includes profit sharing, share options, flexitime, private medical insurance, life insurance, pension package, income protection, carers and emergency leave, relocation assistance, childcare voucher scheme, and discounts on personal computers and bikes".
“The games industry has long depended on getting excessive amounts of free overtime out of its developers, which in the long run just serves to drive them to another field. We want to ensure that Realtime Worlds is always very attractive - both creatively and financially - to our staff, and offering paid overtime is only fair when products of the standards we demand require more effort than is sometimes possible nine to five”, commented John Duthie, the studio's head of HR.
“Whilst, like the rest of the industry, we’re lucky enough to have a number of individuals who are happy working crazy hours just for the pride in the games they’re creating, it’s gone down well being able to reward that more directly. And for those with families, knowing the overtime often required to finish games will be paid for means it’s a lot more palatable at home.”
Advertisement
here bloody here, about time we stopped getting exploited because we're supposed to be so grateful for having a job making games! This should become industry standard and employees should have profit sharing schemes written into their project contracts in my opinion. There's a lot more motivation to work more and do great work if the sucess of the prduct can give personal gain rather than making the rich guys even richer.
Didn't Free Radical make the exact same boast... then go bust a few months later? I was Develop what reported on that in the first place...
Nice diea, but they've borrowed huge sums to get that mmorpg made and they'll need it to be very popular very quickly to satisfy the investors waiting in the wings. I'd wait a few months to see if they are actually going to still be around.
I don't think it's fair to say RTW are like FRD. The latter had a badly received PS3 exclusive shipped as its last game - that explains their story almost entirely.
RTW made Crackdown, is chaired by some smart people, and has a promising MMO on the cards.
Also, it's also fair to note that FRD and RTW aren't the first - and probably not the last - to boast about overtime pay. Places like Traveller's Tales tell me they have offered this for a long time.
We're working into an investigation into Quality of Life issues that will look at benefits like this - more on the Develop site in the coming weeks.
Good luck to them.
Runecraft used to pay overtime too, until they went bust. The system was abused by a minority.
It is very good motivator for the developers and to attract new talents, but it may back fire; hopefully they have planned and analyzed the risks.
I doubt this will ever work. The game industry is dependent on the exploitatation of staff for the simple fact that most of them have had little or no choice in doing anything else with their passion.
But this is changing, more and more sectors are requiring skills which are similar to the game industry and with the industry lacking a lot of the fundamanetal originality that inspired many peopel to work with games in the first place, its only a matter of time before people wise up and realise that a childhood dream is no longer what they want.
Why would anyone want to work on a 75+ man team, busting their ass for around 2.5/3 years and probably producing a mediocre pile of **** at the end of it all?
Lastly, over the next few years more and more work is going ot be outsourced to asia, software copyright is rife over there, so why pay 2k for that 35k a year artist ,when they can produce 4-5 times the workload over there for the same money?
Wise up people, the good old days are long gone.
A step in the right direction. Not paying overtime and taking you employees for granted in that they will work those crazy hours is doing this one simple thing - driving them out to another field/discipline.
If a guy can do a simpler job, get paid double-time - his bottom line for his time at the end of the day - it's simple.
Sure some are ambititous, don't mind working for uhh "free" but In my opinion those people are only helping the problem and giving the employers the freedom to exploit the employees.
Time to stand up, Unionize or something. Get paid for your time, take that Salary and shove it up you bosses ass.
That or quit, start a new career in a different industry where double-time is that standard for all overtime - possibly a skilled trade with a Union.
Bravo! Note to other devcos: I left the industry a couple of years ago with 8 years of coding experience that would transform your title, and am looking for a job, right now. It a shame you're not following suit as I'd gladly have worked for you.
