Brian Hines says Obsidian is not a "crunch studio"

Crunch times, where game workers are expected to put in ridiculous amounts of overtime to get a game finished and onto the store shelves has been (and still is) a big problem in the video game industry. Developers have spoken up about this extreme pressure multiple times before but Obsidian, the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas that's now working on the upcoming, massive action RPG The Outer Worlds, seems to be taking the issue seriously and, with that, not enforcing crunch time, according to senior designer Brian Hines.

In a recent interview with PCGamesN, Hines spoke about crunch and stated: "Obsidian is not a crunch studio, which is one of the things that keeps people staying there for a long time". He did admit that developers do get asked to put in overtime to "meet a deadline for a week or so" but that it's ultimately up to them to take it on.

Hines said: "There really hasn't been a crunch or a death march or anything like that with the studio for quite a long time, as far as I can remember anyway," "That's definitely one of the things that as a studio we're very committed to, we'd rather cut something than try and get people to not have a life outside of the industry".

Are you excited for The Outer Worlds?