Eidos, the studio behind the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy game, has officially announced that it’s switching to four-day workweeks in an effort to make a healthier work environment.
Both Eidos Montreal and Eidos Sherbrooke are switching to a 32-hour workweek instead of a 40-hour one, and it doesn’t plan on changing the working conditions or salaries of employees at all. In a blog post about the change, the studio said the change is all in an effort at building a healthy, creative, and sustainable work environment.
“The idea is not to condense the working hours into 4 days, but rather to review our ways of doing things and our quality time invested, with the aim of working better! Above all, we want to increase the productivity and well-being of our employees,” says Head of Studio David Anfossi, who continues
“We have been wondering for a while about ‘How can an ecosystem and a company increase their efficiency without compromising the well-being of their employees?’. With remote working which has transformed the way we collaborate, we had already started an important cultural transition with the implementation of a rest period, access to a personal financial advisor, access to a telemedicine platform, reimbursement of mental health care and physical activity costs.”
Overworking and crunch, in particular, have been a major talking point in the industry in recent years. This is especially true as report after report about negative working conditions come out, like Naughty Dog crunching on The Last of Us II.
Eidos’ most recent work is the upcoming Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, but it’s also the studio behind Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The newest trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy introduces Cosmo the Space Dog, who was actually mo-capped by a dog named Diego.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy releases on October 26 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch.
