Low Wages, Overtime and Problems - Team17 as Seen by Employees

Team17 may have withdrawn from supporting NFT, but abandoning this controversial concept did not appease the developers associated with the company. On the contrary, as if in response to the original plans of the creators of the Worms series Team17 employees have come forward with accusations against the British publisher, accusing it of terrible employment conditions.

Deadline and "second job" rates

As in the case of Activision Blizzard, it was the employees of the quality assurance (QA) department who were to be the main victims. However, they were not the only ones to let Eurogamer know of their dissatisfaction.

1. The main complaint leveled against Team17 is the "low" or even "tragic" wages and the significant reduction of the Christmas bonus (by up to a thousand euros), despite the fact that many people notoriously worked after hours, even late into the night.
2. Overtime was forced by the numerous projects that the British developer undertook. Many of them had to be completed under time pressure, which on the one hand led to numerous cases of overwork, and on the other resulted in the lack of refinement in Team17's games, to the "surprise" of the bosses.
3. The company's management was said to have dismissed employees' requests for a raise, despite the fact that the bills forced some of them to come to the office during the pandemic, and in one case to take a second job due to a leak in their apartment.

Eurogamer's interviewees say that these and other problems (including rampant harassment aimed at women and inappropriate treatment of employees) have been reported to the human resources department, but without response. At least not the response the developers had hoped for.

Team17 has taken on a fair number of projects in recent years. Too many, according to overworked developers.

Problems with Debbie Bestwick

You can get an idea of the moods in the studio by checking out Team17 on Glassdoor, a website which enables employees to rate companies anonymously. The British developer apparently isn't valued by its staff, thanks - in addition to the aforementioned pay and overtime issues - to CEO Debbie Bestwick, among others.

1. Bestwick has earned resentment for, among other things, openly bragging about her wealth (her fortune is valued at $272 million), which contrasts with the problems of common employees.
2. Eurogamer's sources also claim that Bestwick does not tolerate criticism and happens to "share" her pressure with employees, for example, by insulting one of them in a meeting in connection with the unsatisfactory condition of a project (which was said to have made some people cry).
3. Moreover, the CEO, very active on social media as a "woman in the game industry", is supposed to be unaware of harassment cases in her own company (or turns a blind eye to them).

The future of Team17: either changes or breakups

This is not to say that the atmosphere at Team17 is completely dire. However, despite the announced and already implemented changes (including the hiring of Michael Pattison in October 2021 after his departure from Sony Interactive Entertainment), employees do not want to wait any longer for the situation to improve. Many developers have already left the studio's ranks, and more departures are a matter of time if there are no major changes in the near future.