Disclaimer: I'm not now, nor have ever been, involved in the gaming industry. That said, the 2004 blog post "EA: The Human Story" might be of interest to some. http://www.gameqol.org/ea-spouse/ has a good write-up on it, including a link to the original post and a link to Slashdot comments.
The only way it makes sense to abuse oneself like this is if you have an ownership stake in the company (a real one, not some unvested options), or get paid by the hour. Otherwise you should rinse your coffee cup and walk out the door after hour 40.
If you enjoy coding so much that you don't get enough of it at work, contribute to or start an open source project, or create a proprietary software product to sell for your own profit. Don't donate free work to the company that's already paying you a salary for a set amount of effort.
Well, I think the scale of the problems you can takle on your own in an open source project vs. as part of an established game dev studio team is quite different.
Please don't project your own perspective on other's people work/life balance and consider it as the only valid way that things can be.
Crazy things i am reading about the game industry. The thing is, game companies small or large survive as long as they produce games, so i am not surprised there are so many issues around work pressure. I think this proves that game development should be a business for small companies and indies.
I've constantly asked, at least in companies I've worked for, that we stop giving out recognition awards based on someone working over the weekend or "deadheading" to finish a project.
You're rewarding people burning themselves out and giving away free work. It encourages this behavior by other projects, employees, and management.
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You're rewarding people burning themselves out and giving away free work. It encourages this behavior by other projects, employees, and management.
Long term unhealthy for everyone.