Working for Gameloft is far from fun and games, whistleblower says

It takes quite a lot of work to become one of the top mobile game developers, but Glenn Watson, former Head Studio Programmer at Gameloft's New Zealand studio, says it's taken too much work. The former Gameloft employee told all to Games On Net in a feature that described the company's working conditions as "dangerous."

"Starting at 9:30 AM, going home at 2:30 AM, and then com­ing back into the office at 8:30 AM to start work again was not unusual ," Watson described. "There were other times when I would be called back into the office at 11:30 PM by the studio producer, only to head home again at 2:30 AM. It was after I worked four consecutive weeks of fourteen-hour days - including weekends - that I realized I needed to resign."

According to Games On Net, other anonymous former Gameloft employees have confirmed Watson's allegations. Watson went on to reveal that Gameloft had falsified deadlines to create a constant sense of crunch time. It was internally known as "golding," or constantly telling employees to keep going in order to reach gold status on time with a given product. Games On Net reports that, according to leaked internal emails, this process persists. For more on what may be going on inside French publisher Gameloft's many offices, read the feature in full here.

This is far from the first time a game studio has been accused of less-than-respectable work conditions. Most recently, the creators of Rockstar's L.A. Noire, Australia-based Team Bondi, was the target of whistleblowers for unsavory work conditions. Regardless, it's important to know that, sometimes, the idiom "blood, sweat and tears" may not be too far from reality. We've contacted Gameloft for comment.

[Via Kotaku]

Do you think Watson was right in reaching out to the public about Gameloft's supposed work conditions? How do you think the company will respond to such allegations?

If DeNA's Kaito Royale got a TV series, could a FarmVille movie work?

Maybe a straight-to-DVD flick? DeNA's 10 million player-strong Kaito Royale on its Mobage network will be brought to life in an upcoming television series, Kotaku reports. The game focuses around "gentlemanly thieves," which is what "kaito" translates to roughly, that act as vigilantes to rid the evils of society. Think of Mafia Wars-meets-Robin Hood, and you're about there.

Throughout the game, players must battle each other for supremacy in a rock, paper, scissors-style combat system and steal goods from the competition. More importantly, players will face the bosses of the criminal underworld, one of which is known as Sister Snake. Japanese fashion model Nozomi Sasaki (pictured) will star in the Kaito Royale series as Sister Snake, complete with habit and machine gun, according to Oricon.

Of course, we can't help but wonder what this means for future films and TV shows based on casual or social game products. The Angry Birds movie is very real, and set to land in 2014, while a FarmVille flick is at least in talks right now. But because of how early the supposed FarmVille movie is in its creation, that could go either way at this point.

As much as we hate to admit it, if a mobile social game with 10 million players can get a TV series, then a social game with 28 million players can probably seal a film deal. Then again, there are a lot of places that a TV show based on righteous thieves can go, and that's not really the case for FarmVille. Unless, of course, it goes the parody route.

Would you watch a TV series based on your favorite social game? Do you think mobile and social game developers are onto something with this, or should they stay away?