Outer Wilds dev supports subscription services and decries crunch culture

Outer Wilds has enjoyed a veritable amount of success since its release last year, with several outlets noting it as one of the best games of the year and even one of the best of the decade. Producer and co-creative lead Loan Verneau attributes that success to the game being part of a subscription service.

Outer Wilds was released on Xbox One as part of Microsoft’s Game Pass, a Netflix-like service where users can try out a wide range of games for a monthly subscription. Verneau not only thanks the Game Pass for helping more people discover Outer Wilds, but he even believes that these kinds of services will only benefit the game industry in the future, stating as such in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz.

‘We’re on Game Pass for Xbox, and it’s been really awesome because I think it’s brought a lot of players to the game who would not have known about it otherwise. So I think that’s been a big shift. The same way it’s changed the TV and movie worlds, the subscription system is also going to impact the game industry very significantly. We’re starting to see that, and starting to see it maybe unlock the market to weirder things and more original things that would have been more risky beforehand.’

Verneau also takes pride in his studio Mobius Digital’s decision to not subject its staff to crunch, even openly expressing his disapproval with the practice and saying that it doesn’t help development and only hinders it.

‘One of the things we pride ourselves on [at Mobius Digital] — and I think it’s important to talk about it — is work conditions. We pride ourselves on not crunching and really trying to keep healthy conditions at the office, keeping everyone in a nice work-life balance. I think it’s served us tremendously, and I wish it were something we heard more of. If you schedule accordingly, if you don’t push your team for deadlines that can’t be done, if you keep the environment sane and safe for everyone, I think you can actually make games faster.’

Considering how many horror stories about crunch culture have come about in recent years, hearing a studio talk about how well it treats its employees is a nice change of pace and most likely helped Outer Wilds be as popular as it is.

Outer Wilds is available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.