What’s the hardest you’ve ever worked? It’s not a trick question. For the record, we’re just generally curious. The other reason is that when it comes to the video game space, there are tons of stories of people being worked far too hard just so a game could be completed. Those stories seem to pop up even more often when a big AAA title is due to release and possibly do big sales numbers. 2023 has had plenty of those “big-name titles,” and one of them came out last month in Final Fantasy XVI. It’s not hard to imagine the people at Square Enix going all out for the title, but how far did they push everyone?
For a simple glimpse of that answer, you need only ask the game’s composer, Masayoshi Soken. As noted on Twitter, he went onto a radio show and talked about what it was like working on the new game. To the shock of many, he had to make the music for Final Fantasy XVI on top of doing his work for Final Fantasy XIV.
It got so bad that he needed to hire someone to help him manage his schedule and what to do next because he was so overloaded:
Another thing he noted was that the true starting point for the recent title was back in 2015! By that point, Square Enix’s MMORPG was in full swing, and he had a full workload. So now, imagine doing the music for that large title and adding another one to your workload. Doesn’t sound fun, doesn’t it? Yet, that’s what he had to do, and apparently, do that for years!
While it’s hard to know whether Square Enix pushed other team members to the limit like this, it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing we’ve heard this year. Sadly, the notion of “crunch” among AAA developers isn’t rare at all. Instead, it’s almost a “default” setting for some of them as they’re so desperate to get their big games out versus taking their time to do it right.
Even companies like Bioware, who used to be the kings of quality titles, were pushed too far with certain games, and the results were incredibly lackluster.
While “crunch” has been blasted by many, it still goes on in the game industry at various levels, and this technically is another example of that.
But as many noted on Twitter, at least Masayoshi Soken can take solace because pretty much everyone loved his music in the new title.
