Eidos joined the ranks of game developers pushed back to the crisis time. Square Enix studio has announced that the Quebec location (Montreal and Sherbrooke) shifted to week-to-Thursday work weeks throughout the day in the next few weeks. ” Salary and working conditions will remain the same, Developer Deus Ex and Tomb Raider said.
The hope is, as you would expect, is to improve the quality of working hours. Eido is thus raising a team to redefine working conditions and increase efficiency, such as by cutting the meeting time. The company has applied several changes in quality of life during a pandemic, such as a period of rest and compensation for mental and physical health costs – this is as if the logical expansion of the strategy.
Eidos is not the first studio to adopt four days. Bugsnax developers of young horses made the switch in September. It’s very rare for a big studio to make this step, and it might encourage similar movements by other developers if the strategy has proven successful.
“If” is the term operative. Eidos really wanted to record past tests with a short working week, such as Icelandic civil service, but it was unclear whether it was translated into the game industry. The developer is famous for the rushing game to make the holiday season, even if it leads to very buggy results. Eidos must make a difficult choice: Does it stick to the four-day schedule and the game delayed risk, or demanding extra hours to ensure the title is ready? This short week can pay with a happier developer, but it can also cause problems if the team takes more months to complete the project.