>> Do companies like Activision, Ubisoft, THQ, etc ...

Those are publishers & distributers. You'll be interested in the actual studio that writes the game, not the publisher or distributer.

Studios are fairly small groups of local companies. They often range from a dozen to a hundred or so workers, and they are often purchased by the big corps but are still run as the little local company. Management practice vary by studio. Buyer Employee Beware.

The absolute best way to know is to talk with the people who finished at least one (or more) game at that particular studio, ask them about the details of crunch time. Another interesting insight is to talk to people who left that company and joined at another one, completing game credits at both places. It might take some prying, but you can generally figure out what common problems it has by talking to a few former workers. Good companies don't have their talented workers leave for greener fields without reason.

There are other companies than just the big ones. There's a lot of smaller companies you may never have heard of. There are even more people who develop games in their free time, and some of these are able to make a living of it.

Right now, I'm doing an internship with a fairly small, just-getting-started company. Work hours are 8-5, and if I need to be elsewhere (other job) then they're pretty flexible. I was put off a little by the fearsome crunch-time stories as well, but that really depends on where you get to work.
However, I would strongly advise finding out what game-dev area you like best. For me, it's level-design and programming, I've done both for various years as well as some texture arts and modelling, and I found out various aspects I'd rather not do, and others I really enjoy. I think that just wanting to work in 'the industry' is a little naive. Find out what you really like based on first-hand experience, then look at the available options to do it, or to get there. For example, you can create games in your free time and try to sell them on the internet... or get to work as a freelancer... or modify an existing game to get a good portfolio to up your chances to get into the industry...

You'll work core hours the majority of the time, but there are times coming up to deadlines when you'll have to crunch - work long hours and weekends. It's currently the norm in the industry.

t wrote:

>I'd rather work 8 hours a day and go home to my family.

Most of the time you can do just that.

>I also dont like having to worry about getting paid, I like knowing that every other friday I'll get that 2,500$ paycheck or whatever and be able to pay the bills rather then worry.

Why did you tell us this story? It's not relevant.

>So should I give up on the field?

Yes, I think you should.

>I dont get stressed out, or worried about much but I do have certain things I'd like to go my way.

You should probably forget about working in games.

>growing up my dad had a job where he had to be on call, and spent long hours and sometimes spent the night at work.. I know what this does to kids and I dont want this to happen to mine.

Most of the time it wouldn't.

>I dont mind working weekends, but I would rather be able to spend 3-4 hours with my kids a night at least before they go to bed.. so that would put me at getting home by 6-7 PM.

Most of the time you can.

>How many bad companies are out there? Who are some of them?

There is no list. Do what we do - read the daily trades, read these forums. Any company that has a really bad QOL gets a bad rep and that's bad for business, so they're all working to improve it. Nevertheless, I think the game biz is not for you.