After Grand Theft Auto 6 developer Rockstar Games told employees that they all must return to the office in April, several employees have called out the studio.
VGC reports that several anonymous Rockstar employees aren’t happy with the decision, and believe that Rockstar is “snatching away [a] lifeline”.
“After so many broken promises we now fear management may even be paving the way for a return to toxic ‘crunch’ practices. Senior leadership need to rethink their reckless decision making and engage with their staff to find an arrangement that works for everyone,” an anonymous employee told the outlet.
Another current Rockstar employee told VGC that there has been “zero consultation with us”.
“Just one of my concerns is being forced to work late hours in the office to maintain contact with global teams when before we could log on from home to attend late meetings. This will mean missing out on spending time with our families. I am also aware of colleagues who have health issues preventing full time office work who are now left in limbo,” the employee said.
On X (formerly Twitter) ex-Rockstar developer Taylor Wright, who was a UI programmer on both Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto 5 (per his LinkedIn), posted that during the height of Grand Theft Auto 5 crunch, Rockstar San Diego had “mandatory 80 hour weeks for a couple of months towards the tail end of dev.”
“The release date had already been pushed a few times. This was just part of the culture at that studio, led by a cruel little British guy at the time. Some other studios working on the project had normal hours,” Wright said in response to a follower asking why the studio didn’t just delay the game.
Rockstar’s head of publishing, Jenn Kolbe, told all staff in an email obtained by Bloomberg that the changes were being made in service of Grand Theft Auto 6‘s quality.
“Making these changes now puts us in the best position to deliver the next Grand Theft Auto at the level of quality and polish we know it requires, along with a publishing roadmap that matches the scale and ambition of the game,” the email read.