THANKS
to an email leaked to the press, it’s emerged that Rockstar Games’ senior management has asked staff to return to the office full time from April 15 onwards; this, in an effort to put the finishing touches on the studio’s latest project - Grand Theft Auto VI - before a 2025 release.
Rockstar knows a thing or two about shipping a game. The studio has sold 250 million units since 1998 and is run by senior managers who have been at the company for decades. These are the men and women who’ve decided a return to the ‘old’ way of working is necessary to produce the best product imaginable (and to minimise the very real possibility of leaks).
But, despite this track record, the decision has drawn the ire of the industry.
In one article, published on Eurogamer.net, Rockstar management is criticised for its “reckless” decision. Further down the page, the studio is decried for removing the work-from-home “lifeline”. In the comments, one reader calls for a “revolution”, remarking that “everyone has their breaking point” and that another iota of this treatment will “push enough people over the edge” to trigger that revolution.
Granted, the emboldening anonymity of the internet invites hyperbole, but this is a bit much. Even Rockstar employees are getting involved, writing to the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain to complain. One of their major gripes is that Rockstar senior management failed to focus test this decision with them. Little wonder.
strikes me that attitudes to work have fundamentally changed. In the past, companies had a duty to their customers, and employees had a duty to their employer. The rules of engagement were well defined and kept in balance by a simple exchange: employees did what they were told and were paid in return.
But that’s changing rapidly. Expectations are skyrocketing and employees expect generous salaries in exchange for work they produce on their own terms. In short, their needs are more important than those of the organisation.
This is uncontestable. If it were not true, and Rockstar employees were in the habit of putting the company first, then they would begrudgingly accept the new mandate without complaint. After all, they have no reasonable grounds to object. They are not being asked to do anything illegal, anything morally objectionable, or even anything that would have raised eyebrows a few short years ago. Working where your employer tells you to is one of the basic tenets of being employed - or employable.
Yet staff have gone to a workers’ union, and that workers’ union has published a post trying to pressure Rockstar to reverse the decision. In it, one anonymous Rockstar developer has this to say:
An arrangement that works for everyone. Think about that for a second: Rockstar employs more than 3,000 people across Scotland, India, England, America and Canada, yet they’re obliged to find a compromise that everyone agrees to.
Of course, what the anonymous employee is really saying is, “The change doesn’t suit me.” And I can understand why. But their salary is paid by a company that wants them to go back. So where is the argument?
IT
This article was originally published
in 2024, but has been updated
where necessary (as of July 2026).
Note
The ability to work from home has allowed “us to balance care responsibilities, manage disabilities, and relocate as we need. Now, Rockstar is snatching away that lifeline without a second thought for the workers who’ll be impacted most... Senior leadership need to rethink their reckless decision making and engage with their staff to find an arrangement that works for everyone.”
Expectations are skyrocketing and
employees expect generous salaries in
exchange for work they produce
on their own terms.
"
"
, there is the very real problem of ‘crunch’ in game development: that is, hours of overtime - often unpaid - as a game nears completion. From what I’ve read, Rockstar has indeed had problems with crunch in the past, though staff say the situation is much better today.
I can also understand why employees fear they’ll be working longer hours if they’re in the office. Developers on the original Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar’s 2010 Western) reported receiving “dirty looks” from peers when they got up to go home during turbulent periods of development. But while overtime is a thorny issue, it’s not unlawful. In the UK, unpaid overtime can be written into a contract and staff can find themselves working longer than they’d like to for no extra pay.
The basic point is this: as a member of staff, you have a choice in the matter. Are you willing to spend less time with your family, but work on a game that millions will play? Or will you stick to your guns and seek employment elsewhere? The modern employee seems resistant to this concept, searching instead for a utiopian solution that has no basis in reality. Rockstar cannot run a business employing thousands of people and avoid causing any consternation ever. Nor can they put their staff before their game, because if they did, they’d be less profitable, which would mean fewer jobs and more people out of work anyway.
Like almost all working arrangements (and civil partnerships for that matter), there is a power struggle taking place. In the past, corporations may have wielded too much power, but in skilled fields, I feel the reverse is true now. Ever since the Me Too movement, and latterly, Covid-19, the workplace has become less about the output and more about the environment for the staff. Safe spaces, bloated HR departments, weekly check-ins. What’s really going on?
What’s going on is a concerted push to get more and more out of employers. With the media in tow, employees can air their grievances and leverage a better deal. In the wake of stories about sexual misconduct, 100-hour workweeks and “toxic managers”, Rockstar has bent over backwards to accommodate an increasing number of demands. In the process, they’ve handed the ammunition to the very people they’re supposed to be in charge of.
There’s an inescapable irony at play. At the height of Rockstar’s crunch management culture, where the boys’ club expected everyone to work hard and play hard, no one ever dared to say a bad word. Now, as management has softened and tried to play the appeasement game, they can’t even get their salaried staff back to the office without a fuss.
As the saying goes, if you give an inch, they’ll take a mile.
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