In the gaming industry, crunch is a six-letter word with essay-length implications. The demoralizing nature of a work-obsessed lifestyle often speaks for itself; not only is it soul-draining, but there's evidence that it can lead to suboptimal results.

If you'd said any of that to many video game developers throughout the 1990s and even the 2000s, however, you might well be laughed out of the room. 'Crunch culture' was simply the norm. That certainly held true at Sega. In an interview, a trio of longtime Sega veterans look back at just how ingrained the nature of crunch culture once was at the legendary company, and how things have changed in more recent times.

Great Expectations

Takaharu Terada has worked on everything from Skies of Arcadia to Sonic X Shadow Generations in his three decades with Sega. Toru Ohara has been there even longer, since 1993; his contributions range from Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium Saga and Sakura Taisen to... well, Sonic X Shadow Generations. Toru Yoshida somehow has them both beat, starting his career there in 1988 with Super Thunder Blade II before progressing through several Phantasy Star games, Skies of Arcadia, Shinobi, heaps of Sakura, and - you guessed it- Sonic X Shadow Generations.

All of this is to say, these are three men with dozens of published games to their names. So, when they reminisce about the myriad changes that have occurred on a corporate level throughout their extensive tenure, it's worth listening to them. In an interview with Japanese publication 4Gamer, which was spotted and translated courtesy of Automaton, Terada, Ohara, and Yoshida did a deep dive. One thing stood out above the rest: crunch.

“In the 1990s, every new Sega office was equipped with naprooms and showers," Yoshida recalls. "Even in the 2000s, the two Haneda bases still had them, and I believe people continued to use them. It was basically expected that people would be sleeping over at the office.”

"There was the "sleeping on a chair" that we talked about earlier, but in my case, I made a bed under my desk. I laid down cardboard and put a sleeping bag on top of that... I created an environment where I could sleep well and recover my strength." -Toru Ohara

Wild times, but at least as far as I can tell, the developers took it in stride, making the best of the situation and quite possibly assuming it was the norm. Because, well, back then, it kind of was the norm. "Manga is great because you can use it as a pillow," Terada bounced off of Ohara's memory. 4Gamer's interviewer, a bit confused, asked why folks were sleeping under their desks when there was an established naproom. "During busy periods, there were times when there weren't any beds available," Ohara answered. Oh. Of course.

"For projects with short deadlines, our only option was to stay overnight," said Ohara. Terada remembers Ohara providing some sagely advice: "Your HP will recover if you sleep at the company, but your MP will decrease, so be careful."

The devs did find ways to maintain some semblance of a healthy, er, MP pool. "When Ohara and I were staying overnight, we would sometimes play Bushido Blade together. I feel like we lost track of what was work and what wasn't." They'd bring new games, rejoice, and check them out together; it all sounds a bit like what I'd been doing with my friends in that same era, except I was ten years old, and I definitely did not feel the weight of entire weeks spent away from home.

via Sega

As times have changed, Sega has done away with the naprooms, the showers, and the wild expectations. 4Gamer asked what happened, and Yoshida thoughtfully replied that it was a bit of a blend.

"I think it was partly due to work style reforms, but there were still some people who wanted to stay overnight at the office, so it may have been due to the effort or physical constraints on the company's part."

Even when overnight stays were being viewed with decreasing interest, there were still those who wanted to stick around. But the era is hardly forgotten. "Some people even lived at the office," Yoshida said, and Terada was quick to agree. "We'd sleep at the office from Monday to Friday, finally go home on Saturday, and then sleep at the office again from Monday." Brutal.