Sega has reduced “long overtime hours” by 80%

Crunch has been a disturbingly common practice in the game industry, and the past few years have seen many developers push back against expectations of lengthy overtime and unhealthy working hours. Sega’s latest financial report says overtime reduction is one of the company’s biggest goals in the near-term, but reading between the lines it seems there’s still quite a way left to go. Sega says “long overtime hours” - which the company defines as working more than 80 extra hours in a month - have been reduced by 80%-90% since implementing anti-overtime initiatives back in 2013. Those efforts have been focused at four divisions: Sega Games proper, the arcade division Sega Entertainment, animation studio TMS Entertainment, and Sega Toys. Those divisions represent a small portion of Sega Sammy Holdings subsidiaries, but Sega’s primary Japanese development studio is there. The report (noted on ResetEra) says that “the main focus of the Group’s work-style reforms is the achievement of a balance between work and private life. We want employees to have quality time outside of the office so that they do not lose their creative drive. Well-established measures that the Group has introduced to reduce long overtime work have produced tangible results.”

from PCGamesN https://ift.tt/2yikprV