Veterans from studios like Insomniac, Giant Sparrow, Bethesda, and others, have gotten together to open a brand-new studio: Gardens.
The gaming industry is not exactly free from scandals, and one that's not new and recurring year after year, is that workers in the gaming industry are simply over-worked. Crunch is a real thing in the gaming industry, and burnout is a real thing in mental health. Now, a new gaming studio wants to blaze the path for a new working philosophy in the industry.
Gardens Is a AAA Studio Focused on Employee Wellbeing
Gardens is a studio that is a remote-first game developer, that will not have crunch or any of the other toxic work practices that have become all-too-standard in the gaming industry. While this sounds all hippie-ish on paper, it's already bore fruit in reality: Devs from Spider-Man, Edith Finch, Journey, Fallout 4 and other huge games have already joined the studio.
Gardens are also working on their first game, which is an online game set in a mysterious world. Of course, the first concept art has been revealed already. Outside of that, we unfortunately know nothing about the game. We don't even know if it's an MMORPG, though it is rather safe to assume that it would be.
Video Game Veterans Start New Fully-Remote Studio, 'Gardens', To Make "Online Experiences" https://t.co/fpk7EfZ9jZ #Repost #Industry #Business pic.twitter.com/xDnJpm3OyE
— Nintendo Life (@nintendolife) February 3, 2022
With Gardens, we wanted to create a studio that cares as much about the health, happiness, and wellbeing of its team members as we do the craftsmanship of the games we create together.
We love to hear it, and we wish them all the best. Also, that artwork looks slick af, and if that's actually the graphics from the actual game... that's gonna be good for my wellbeing, I can tell you that right now.