Team17 staff speak out against studio conditions following ‘Worms’ NFT controversy

nme.com:

Team17 would be cancelling its Worms NFT project shortly after it was announced last month, several employees have come forward to share their disappointment with the company’s push into the NFT space, along with other concerns.According to the original report from Eurogamer, several anonymous staff members have stated that during the original announcement of the NFT project, the company refused to listen to concerns, which has ultimately put additional pressure on the team.Some staff members came forward to object to the NFT project – which was said to be in the works since last year – saying that they were against the idea of non-fungible tokens.

After the cancellation, Team17 staff were informed via a meeting that reportedly felt like a “political apology”.“If it was the people in the office who swayed them – if it had been the employees – they wouldn’t have done it,” one staff member who attended the meeting said. “…They didn’t apologise to staff, even the community managers who were subjected to a barrage of abuse because of it.”Past and present Team17 employees also confirmed that the company has been letting go of employees, while others work long hours, sometimes working weekends for projects that needed extra attention, but have low salaries.One employee said they worked every night of the week for months to meet a particular deadline while, outside of QA, staff said they worked overtime completely unpaid.

QA members also described pay as “low” and “terrible” at around £16k GBP current base rate, up to around £19k GBP for a senior QA role.Additionally, staff described their lack of faith in the company’s HR team, saying that it failed to act when alerted to issues surrounding sexual harassment.