>Or Quake, where the game development process literally broke the team.

Going by interviews with the team over the decades, they had clashing personalities and poor leadership.

> AAA game development was far more brutal in the 90s.

Honestly it's probably always been brutal going back even to the early days of Atari. Companies like EA have spent three decades destroying beloved studios for profit, only to now be chewed up and spit out by PE/VC bastards themselves. A fitting end really.