Metro: Last Light creative director responds to Rubin's account of 4A's terrible working conditions

Metro: Last Light's Andrew Prokhorov has responded to Jason Rubin's account of the terrible working conditions the Ukrainian developer endured while working on the shooter.

According to 4A Games' creative director, during the 10 years the developer worked with THQ, Rubin was "the only THQ President" who visited the team in Kiev.

"He did this on his second week in THQ," said Prokhorov on GI International. "Keep in mind that he only had few months to somehow fix the situation. Alas, that didn't work out.

"It is a fact that our work conditions are worse than those of other developers outside Ukraine. I don't think anyone can doubt that - yes, it's true that American and most of European developers operate in a country far more comfortable than Ukraine, and yes, the publishers pay them more.

"This is clear: the more "reasonable" the country the less the risks, and we don't want to be all dramatic about that - after all, better conditions are earned, and we strive to do this as soon as possible."

Yesterday, Rubin wrote on GI International that 4A Games faced unthinkable issues when developing the game; issues which developed countries aren't faced with such as power going out for days at a time; centrally-administered heating shutting down in the winter and having to sit in folding banquet chairs at their desks.

“Accounting for the budget and adversity that the team faced, and considering the size and talent of the teams they are competing with, [Last Light] is a stunning achievement,” Rubin said.

After thanking Rubin for his article, Prokhorov said not to blame the firm's new publisher, Deep Silver as it inherited a bit of a mess itself, and was faced with many a "hard task" to push through with only two months until Metro: Last Light was released.

"Jason, please don't blame Deep Silver for not having our logo on the game site... just like us, they ended up in a harsh situation and had to do a lot of things in two months, which was definitely a very hard task," he said. "I don't blame them for letting the logo thing slip. They are trying hard. After all, it's our game that matters and not our logo."

As far as THQ "forcing" multiplayer on the developer was concerned, Prokhorov said that while the team wanted "to make multiplayer," it was excluded from the start, "a lot of precious time wouldn't be wasted and we'd make an even better single-player."

"We deserve the ratings we get," he concluded. "After all, the final consumer doesn't care about our conditions. And this is RIGHT. We need no indulgence."