Work-Life Balance

Square Enix Shifts to Permanent Work From Home

Square Enix plans to enable a permanent work-from-home program starting in December. | Chesnot/Getty ImagesGame developer and publisher Square Enix will offer employees a work-from-home option permanently, the company announced Wednesday.Rather than utilizing work from home solely as a means of preventing infections during the current pandemic, the Company will establish it as a permanent and core program among the working styles it accommodates," reads the announcement. "In so doing, the Company hopes not only to create a flexible and diverse working environment, but also to further bolster productivity and

Oculus co-founder and games industry vets form Mountaintop Studios

Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell is heading up a new game development house called Mountaintop Studios, joined by colleagues from around the gaming industry. The company aims to leave the crunch and toxic culture pervasive in game studios behind and make one that’s “collaborative, anti-crunch, diverse and inclusive.” The founding team includes Mitchell’s former colleague Mark Terrano, who was creative director at Oculus, Matt Hansen, former COO of Double Fine, and artist Rich Lyons, who worked at Naughty Dog and Vigil. According to its webpage, Mountaintop will be creating “multiplayer games

Beyond Finland: Working at Rovio’s RPG-Focused Studio in Sweden

Daniela Fontes is a Data Analyst at Rovio’s Stockholm studio. She joined Rovio in 2019 after founding a VR game studio based in Portugal. She works closely with the game teams at Rovio to set KPIs, monitor game performance, and improve the player experience. In my role as a data analyst at Rovio, I work closely with our game teams to design, implement, and analyze tests that ultimately help the game team make decisions. I also work with support functions like user acquisition and user research to deliver insights to