The dangers of Rockstar Games’ return to office mandate

3 mins read

Rockstar Games return to office mandate feeds into the dangerous crunch culture that has plagued the games industry for years.

Rockstar Games are one of the most successful games studios, creating franchises such as Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto. The latter, having a new game coming out next year. GTA 6 has been in the works since 2013 and it’s one of the most anticipated games of all time.

Since GTA 6‘s announcement the hype from the fan base has been unbelievable. This hype has clearly had an effect on Rockstar, they have demanded through their recent return to work mandate that their staff must work in office five days a week from April until the release of GTA 6.

This mandate comes after the leaks the studio has been facing the past few years. In September 2022, three hours of game play were leaked, and in December 2023 the official reveal trailer leaked a day early.

The company has chalked these leaks up to the games hybrid development. Half the staff work in the office, the other half work at home. This development style was common during the pandemic.

Rockstar branded “unacceptable” for demands

This shift was done without consulting staff members, prompting the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain to respond. Chairperson, Austin Kelmore, said: “It is unacceptable that Rockstar leadership have gone back on their word time and time again[…]Workers across the (games) industry are done with letting executives make reckless and harmful decisions.”

Working five days a week in studio could lead to a whole host of issues. One of the worst and most common being crunch.

Crunch is a common practice employed by a studio when a game is in it’s last stages of development. Developers stay at the office for longer hours to continue working on the game. In recent years studios have started unionizing to avoid this happening.

Crunch has only become more common as games get bigger and take more time – time that studios aren’t willing to give their employees.

Rockstar’s mandate proves that studios have not been listening to their employees, and more action needs to be done to make them listen.

Featured image credit: Gamesradar.com

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