This culture was pretty active at Google and it had some interesting downsides. The fact was that people were recognized for shipping and not for 'finishing' and so a lot of shipped but unfinished things clogged things up. When a bazillion people were being hired, new hires would be dumped on a project as their 'starter' project, and the smart ones would figure out it was a dead end and move on quickly to either their own project or one that was about to ship.
During the crisis in 2009 when hiring froze, and the new hires dried up, this became unsustainable and folks had to be 'incented' to work on less glamorous jobs. Really good project managers made a group feel good and the community aspects kept people around, but they hadn't solved the problem before I left.
I would expect that for games or anything which has a relatively short life after being shipped, you could extend this sort of thing for a long time.
During the crisis in 2009 when hiring froze, and the new hires dried up, this became unsustainable and folks had to be 'incented' to work on less glamorous jobs. Really good project managers made a group feel good and the community aspects kept people around, but they hadn't solved the problem before I left.
I would expect that for games or anything which has a relatively short life after being shipped, you could extend this sort of thing for a long time.