After a decade of waiting and a myriad of leaks, the Grand Theft Auto community finally got the first look at GTA 6 with the trailer release on December 5, 2023. The game is slated to release sometime in 2025 and is currently in the final stages of development at Scotland-based Rockstar North.
While the players are excited about Grand Theft Auto 6, publisher Rockstar Games has come under fire from the developers due to some recent changes. The developers working on the game have criticized the publisher, as it requires them to return to the office next month.
GTA 6 Developers Slam Rockstar Games for Return to Office Decision
Rockstar Games notified its staff via email on February 28 that the company’s head of publishing, Jenn Kolbe, has made the return-to-office decision and the majority of employees will need to be back in the office five days a week starting on April 15, 2024. However, the developers aren’t pleased with this decision and are worried about the time crunch.
It is important to know that the development of GTA 6 is being done with Rockstar North, but Rockstar support studios from the UK and other countries also lend a hand. The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), representing video game developers in the UK, has now released a statement about this decision, with devs accusing the company of “breaking promises.”
The IWGB stated that Rockstar’s move “marks a U-turn from previous statements in which the company insisted flexible work options would remain available.” It added that 170 Rockstar Games employees in the UK signed a petition last year, opposing the three-day work in office. After this decision from Rockstar, the workers have expressed concerns about “health, caring responsibilities, living arrangements, and a heightened risk of overwork.”
IWGB also said that Rockstar’s management is refusing to talk to its employees and will “pull the plug” on the remote availability of technology on April 15th. It also included comments from Rockstar employees, with one saying, “There has been zero consultation with us,” and another employee saying that “management may even be paving the way for a return to toxic ‘crunch’ practices.”
Why Is Rockstar Games Asking Employees to Return to Office?
It is said that the decision was made due to security and productivity concerns, as the company wants GTA 6 to be “at the level of quality and polish” it requires. The main reason behind Rockstar’s decision seems to be security reasons for GTA 6.
The highly anticipated game has already seen several leaks, including the massive September 2022 one that led to dozens of video files related to Grand Theft Auto 6 uploaded on GTAForums. The videos showed unfinished assets and several elements of the game in development, including different parts of the game world, gunplay, NPC AI, and more.
Since then, the hacker has been sentenced to indefinite confinement in a hospital. The GTA 6 reveal trailer was also leaked a day ahead of the official release, and the company does not want to risk anything happening like this again when the game is nearing completion.
What are your thoughts about Rockstar’s return to office decision? Let us know in the comments.
