Halo Co-Creator Left Bungie After Enduring Life-Altering Crunch

One of the reasons that Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto left Bungie was because of the extended periods of crunch that negatively impacted his life and wellbeing.

[RazzerRedux]

"Lehto said his new studio, V1 Interactive, is taking a stance against crunch. "

Good. Nice to see someone actually making changes themselves and not just talking about things SHOULD change.

[IRetrouk]

What Lehto is saying is good for sure, they want to limit the worst part of the industry, which should be applauded, but they did state that crunch would still happen, but over a week or two instead of months on months, I think that's a good compromise, especially with them allowing time off for family functions etc. If they stick to what they say, it will be a great place to work.

[RazzerRedux]

Yep. There are plenty of jobs that have periods of "crunch" time. Hell, I had "crunch" time just getting through grad school. But you have to be smart about it and seems like Lehto gets that.

[IRetrouk]

Yeah, it must have really got to him, hopefully more companies take this approach to their staff, overtime happens to us all, but like you say, if its managed right it shouldn't be a problem.

[abstractel]

Great initiative, don't think the industry will change until there's a union.

[Ripsta7th]

i wish i was allowed crunch times at work.... oh wait it fucking work
u dont like it , you leave .simple as that

[Palitera]

Saying trading a high tier job for another is "simple" shows how shallow is your perception about this whole thing.
For adult people, specially if with kids, leaving a well positioned job it's not "simple" at all, even less in the games industry.

[UltraNova]

You really don't get how jobs and people work.

[BadElf]

There is crunch every where. Cant just only have safe spaces

[UnholyLight]

This title was a bit misleading but maybe that's me overthinking before the click. I thought this was referring to someone recently leaving because of the Halo 6 development cycle. Again like I said maybe just overthinking but that's how the title felt to me.

[RabbitFly]

Bungie has not worked on halo for quite a while.

[UnholyLight]

Hahaha oh my god, fail. As a massive Halo fan I should have remembered that. Ignore my comment then!

[Bismarn]

"enduring life altering crunch" sounds like Gungan PTSD.

[SpineSaw]

I wonder how much pressure Microsoft put on Bungle to get the Halo games out. Microsoft owned Bungie and I doubt it was all internal pressure from Bungie to hit their make and more likely their overlords Microsoft putting on the pressure.