I think there's a legitimate complaint if crunch time is never-ending," he continued. "Crunch should be the last three to six months of game development. I do get that it is a bad and unfair business practice to work 18 months non-stop overtime, [but] I don't think anybody was entitled to overtime pay."

If you're curious about why Pachter feels this way - and you should be - the short answer is that what developers don't get in overtime pay is generally more than made up for by hefty bonuses, particularly for successful triple-A releases. "If you want to be an hourly employee, go build automobiles. And what will happen is they'll close down your plant some day and you'll be out of work," he continued. "The cool thing about this industry is, if you're good, you'll make a ton of money. I think [the point] everyone is missing is that if a game is good - and L.A. Noire was good - there will be a profit pool, and there will be bonuses."