A lot of people hear a lot of things. In fact, if you take a room full of monkeys, I'm sure you will eventually get a Lord of the Rings audiobook out of that.
This rumour comes up *every* year, right before E3. That certainly helps its credibility. google
As for the topic - crunch is a reality in the industry, I doubt you will find a place without it. The question is how much, how much of it is part of the system and schedule from the start and how neccessary it is. At a startup studio, doing the first few projects, expect lot's of crunch (but that's the same in every industry when you start a new venture, after all you also build infrastructure along the way and you want to leave an excellent first impression on the market) - as an established developer, perpetual crunch for the length of the project, as it seems to be be the case in some places, is unacceptable
The IDGA's quality of life page has several good resources that should allow you to get a picture
http://www.igda.org/qol/open_letter.php
http://www.igda.org/qol/
