Det nye Half-Life: Alyx er blevet modtaget med stor ros og solide salgstal, og man må sige, Valve er vendt tilbage på spilmarkedet med et brag. En stigende tendens blandt de store spilstudier er dog den infamøse brug af crunch, og mange spekulerer sikkert i, om Valve har anvendt den samme arbejdspraksis under udviklingen af Half-Life: Alyx.
To af topfolkene hos Valve har dog for nyligt udtalt sig om netop dette emne. Det drejer sig om Greg Coomer og James Benson, der henholdsvis er designer og animator på Half-Life: Alyx. I et interview med GamesBeat forsikrer de om, at crunch ikke er normen hos Valve. Ifølge Greg Coomer forekommer crunch kun i sjældne tilfælde.
"I think explicitly, we've purposefully made it so that crunch mode is not the norm, and hopefully not a thing that goes on at Valve. Except in very rare cases where people are in the last couple of weeks of development, a subset of the group will choose to work hours that are sort of extended in order to get through certain periods."
Greg Coomer understreger, at crunch heller ikke var aktuelt under udviklingen af Half-Life: Alyx, og han stiller sig generelt også uforstående overfor crunch-kulturen, hvor han undrer sig over, hvorfor man bevidst nedslider nogle af de bedste spiludviklere, der findes.
"I think as somebody who's been around forever at Valve, I'm pretty proud of the fact that, even in recent months, as Alyx was wrapping up, I would walk around the office and if it was past normal working hours, the office was empty. The kind of thing he was talking about really is an intentional design, to not burn out the very best people in the world. We managed to hire them. If we were causing them to not be able to see their family or work too many hours, it would be shooting ourselves in the foot. It's almost not a thing in the company."
Lad det være et budskab til andre store studier om, at AAA-titler og crunch ikke behøver at gå hånd i hånd.