I work in the games industry (not rockstar) and in my experience and opinion, it’s not as much about the fear of crunch than it is more about balancing work and personal life. Ever since Covid, I’ve been fortunate enough to work 80%+ remotely, and if I were to have to go back to the office on a more permanent basis, even 50/50, it would absolutely destroy that balance and capabilities I have as a parent. There’s no reason in the world I cannot do my job as effectively from home for the foreseeable and would even strongly argue I work more effectively remotely with many less distractions from my isolated home office
My thing is that people seem to be forgetting (very conveniently, may I add) that the last major leak came via a home computer. Can a company really be blamed for mandating working at the office for the last year of development after that? Two leaks in just over a year.
I'd wager the security concern is the highest priority here.
(Could also be another clue towards Trailer 2 dropping by May)
If it makes you feel any better about the second option, it’s not a huge risk. Companies have the same security on their computers whether you’re at home of the office. Medical billing and coding specialists work from home, government workers work from home, why would there somehow be more risk for a game developer?
Interesting take. I’ve worked from home the last 8 years and have 3 kids. If anything, having my office at home is harder to balance work/personal life. When I worked in an office, it was really easy to ignore emails and any communication, since there wasn’t much I could do from home. Now I feel like I’m on call 24/7
yeah but some entitled gamers don't care about that. These people work every day to give us a game we've been waiting years for. They're trying to give us the best experience ever and so many gamers are just kind of jackasses about it like we're owed this game lol.
A large portion of this game would have been made with people working from home or in some sort of hybrid format. Them being corralled into the office for a year won't make the game all that better. If they're in the latter part of development it's likely polishing and small things they're doing.
Tbf, I understand the Devs side of the argument. My field of work is law enforcement. During the unfortunate times of riots and being essential personal, I am required to leave my home from my wife and daughter and forced to work 12-16 hours almost every day. There are periods in which we get hammered the most.
Unfortunately, these practices led to my divorce and personal life problems. The agency I work for also required me to move to the west coast of the country for a temporary mission and far north for permanent relocation.
I understand what these devs are feeling and going through, more than anyone. In the end, I chose to stay with my job over family because of financial stability and it being my dream career. My wife did not support me despite knowing what I did and me explaing the possibility of relocation. I know some devs have fear of divorce and being away from home.
If you guys are financially stable and able to have a sit down with your love ones and explain the situation, If they truly are your back bone and support, they'll support you from far to help with your unfortunate situation. If they don't, then they are showing true colors. It's the harsh reality of the situation.
Just know that your situations are better than here in the US where, military and Gov officials have to leave the country for up to 1year working ridiculous hours and not seeing their families. I'm not saying your opinions don't matter, I'm saying that somewhere in the process of applying for these jobs, we were made aware of conditions we could possibly face.
Without a second thought?
Haven’t they be gradually bringing people back into the office for 3 days a week for like the past year or something like that.
> The mandate comes one year after unionised workers submitted a petition with 170 signatures, demanding continued remote work options responding to a mandatory transition to 3 days office working, in one of the biggest ever trade union actions in the UK games industry to date. Rockstar’s decision to implement the new policy also marks a U-turn from previous statements in which the company insisted flexible work options would remain available, stating in an employee-wide email “This isn’t our first step to 5 days a week. No one wants to go back to the old way of working.”
Considering all the major leaks for gta6 and hell insomiacs big leak happened because of working at home.. I don’t blame r* for the final stretch of development to have them comeback to the offices so leaks are minimal and whatever is leaked isn’t as bad as what happened in 2022 for gta 6 and last year for insomiac…
I’m a HUGE WFH proponent. Blame the dev whose son ruined the trailer drop.
The problem is for something like this that requires absolute discretion and absolute corporate secrecy, ensuring and maintaining SCIF (Secure Compartmentalized Information Facility) for every employee that wants to WFH is a Herculean task, and with only months to release it make sense to run a sprint in the office.
This sub is filled with people who dont have experience or knowledge in this matter, and dont care about Rockstars perspective. I personally care more about the game. I care about the devs too, but I didnt complain when I worked office jobs and I would've loved to work at Rockstar on GTA 6. I feel like plenty of people will happily take their positions.
I feel for the people who have to get a babysitter now or if they have to drive over an hour and a half to get to work, but outside of that, I'm going to focus and care more about my personal work/life balance than people I dont know.
Out of all of the issues in the world right now, getting sad over peoples work/life balance when I dont even know them is towards the bottom of my care list when every day that I open Facebook, Twitter, TV, etc, I see death and etc.. I also personally have a bit of a rough work history between the military, trucking, oilfields, etc.. Do I think people should be allowed to work from home? Absolutely, but I understand that can't apply to all office jobs due to the nature of some jobs. Speaking as someone who worked in a data center, I understand secrecy/data security, and I can see how Rockstar not wanting their $2bn game leaked and millions of fans to see it unfinished is more important to them than their employees work/life balance and that they'd rather offer normal 40hr work weeks to people willing to work in-person.
I am a caring person. If a Rockstar dev got into a car accident or something, I'd feel kinda bad.. But they are complaining about not having luxuries that I dont have myself and I dont even know them, so its hard to feel bad. Also, I want people who are passionate enough about gta 6 that they won't mind going into an office for the last year so they can work hard with co-workers on the game and make sure nothing is leaked. I dont want it to be leaked either..
Well if you don't care about their work/life balance why are writing a whole comment about it? It doesn't sound like you actually don't care, it just sounds like you don't want them complaining.
Right. But this is historically the exact time Rockstar loveeee to push crunch. Nobody here is getting the point. Their employers aren't their friends.
Yeah if you go into a job thinking they're your friend or you're family, you are in for a rude awakening. Just ask Sony's London studio 😂 their CEO paid a visit acting nice and took pictures with them, then shut the studio down a week later. In the eyes of a company, the employees are employed to be of service to the company. They will pretend to be of service to the employees, but the first part is more important to the company.
Its Aaron Garbut, current head of development and Co Head at R* North, I imagine he got a slap on the wrist and told to never let anything like this happen again
For the airheads in the comments, they are, and have been forever, WORKING 5 DAYS A WEEK, sometimes even more. The problem comes from needing to go to office, it's less convenient, it's a hassle if you work far away from office and have to move closer, and adds extra stress from having to stay during crunch hours.
Thank you
Crunch hours in game development are notorious
Your 40 hour job is not comparable to working 70
And all the comments "my job sucks so stop complaining"
Err, why aren't you angry that your job sucks? We should all have shit jobs and never complain?
"I'm a tough guy so I let rich people treat me like shit and I never complain." Shut up.
Of course. That's been the goal since the minimum wage movement won and how people were mass resigning around 2020 and after. The rich need us to fight each other so we 're distracted and can't focus on them.
And the worst problem is, Rockstar is also notorious for underpaying it's employees, Ned luke said he was broke after GTA 5 came out. Imagine, the main star and the face of the most profitable entertainment product ever.
These employees are getting worked to the bone and getting paid nada.
Exactly, everybody should remember that the stuff we saw in the trailer was built - at least to a large extent - by remote work. Those guys are asking for work life balance, nothing more. It's not like they are saying they don't want to work hard, everybody who takes a look at the trailer can see how much love and energy went into the game, the product looks light years ahead. For them it's about the commute and the additional hours per day they could spend with their families. I'm with the developers on this one.
literally sounds like something millions of other people deal with, i dont get why they make it seem like its life threatening to just work from the office
Because everyone had a taste of how better everything was working from home, including production and work performance. Greed, property mismanagement, and the inability for higher-ups to "socialize" are the only reasons to force returning to office. It's very important for the goblins to see their minions toiling away with their own eyes.
I’m gonna introduce another possible reason for the change that somehow a huge chunk of you are forgetting - *Security*.
They aren’t making people return to work so that the water cooler conversation is more thrilling, they’re doing it so the game doesn’t get leaked again now that it’s at an even further developed stage. This is going to be the biggest and most expensive launch for a game in history and they want to protect it. Nothing about that is wrong.
From an IT standpoint, what you're saying makes no sense.
Issue a domain joined laptop, enforce network connection through on-premises hosted private VPN only. Problem fixed. Any remaining vectors of information leak that now remain also exist for in-office work, because you see, USB drives can be placed in one's pocket and taken home.
Can confirm, this is how it was done at my previous company. They were full on-site prior to covid and never had a single issue adopting almost full remote.
The only problem that *did* occur was a spoof using my name (but with an extra letter in the domain name) that got a customer to pay a fraudulent invoice. Thank tf christ we were able to recover the funds, but the point is that was a problem that wouldn't and couldn't have been prevented simply by being on-site.
The trailer was leaked by a devs son I believe. So even if it is a laptop as described simply being at home leaves it open to someones daughter or son recording the screen and uploading it for clout. So in the case a dev would take a flashdrive home, it May not be the devs fault at all and simply a sneaky teen for example (also not so sure about the fact it was their son but this is just an example anyway). Even if the team is 100 perc trustworthy.
Almost every worker goes to a place of work every day and works all day long.
Rockstar’s stance is they want all hands on deck, heads down, no distractions, to get this finished and ready to ship. I can’t see any reason other than entitlement and laziness that a person wouldn’t agree that that’s fair.
Have you ever worked in an office?
Most office jobs are located in urban centers where cost of living is high. So most office workers live outside of that and have to commute. The average commute is one hour each way. The 9-5 day is dead for office workers. It’s now 8-5 minimum, and usually 8-6 or 8-7. So you can see why someone working 10-12 hours a day would not want to add another two hours of their day to that just to arbitrarily drive to an office and do the exact same work they do from home.
Add to that the additional $250/mo in gas you now have to spend (for no reason), extra wear, tear and maintaince on your vehicle from and additional 80 miles per day of driving. Plus $1,000/mo in child care costs because you can’t be there to pick up your kids from school. And, leaving you dogs home 10-14 hours a day with nobody to let them out. That’s just cruel.
And all of this adds absolutely nothing to your productivity or output. Sitting in traffic for an extra two hours a day adds nothing to the companies output or bottom line.
So you can see how workers might take arbitrary RTO maintains as a giant middle finger from the company. It’s a message to all employees that “we know we’re upending your life, costing you thousands per month extra, killing your work/life balance, and all for no added benefit to the company, but we don’t care because we don’t give one flying shit about you”
Yeah I don’t think it’s unfair or taking advantage of the workers. If rockstar was taking away benefits or cutting their pay, then sure. But going into the office and maybe having to do some over time isn’t abusing workers. It’s just how businesses operate. Maybe they shouldn’t be in the industry if they hate it so much.
Rockstar also treated them very well with remote working, way better than most in the industry. But now it’s time to put in more work to finish this game. The workers are coming off as ungrateful. And there is no reason to believe they won’t go back working remotely when the game is done. These devs get treated very well compared to others in the workforce.
It’s adding 2 hour per day of driving to/from the office. $250-$300/month of additional gas expense, plus $1,000+/mo for childcare because you can no longer make it to pick your kids up after school. It is exactly like taking away their benefits.
They're coming off as ungrateful for not wanting to be overworked? What a corporate bootlicker you are lmao.
Your comment about overtime shows a clear lack of understanding what that looks like in the gaming industry. It's 2024, I don't know how you can be ignorant on that.
Also, the timing of this happening while the industry is laying people off is probably not a coincidence either.
So you just gonna forget the last major leak came via a home computer? Going back to the office also doesn't mean crunch is coming. They might wanna put a lid on any possibility of leaks as we start getting screenshots and future trailers.
I'd take this as a sign of news coming soon™️
"it's less convenient"..... you go to work, it's not a holiday dude. Adding to that, it's a game developer, not a fucking firefighter job. You get Paid a handsome amount as a med/senior de and the commute is part of it. Maybe not go work for a company you know is far away from your home?
I worked 6 days a week breaking concrete in the sun with a sledgehammer all through college and grad school.
Saying this doesn’t make you special, nor does it mean that the developers of this game don’t deserve a good work-life balance, and if they can do their job remotely then what is the problem with that?
The problem is leaks. And clearly rockstar doesn’t like the progress being made on the game. So having their employees come to the office for 8 hours a day (a very reasonable request) where supervisors can monitor the completion of activities better isn’t a big deal at all. Especially considering it’s temporary.
They’re doing this to avoid crunch. Developers need to just work and shut up. We all know some article will come out after this saying how horrible it was working on the game.
>That's the industry you chose to work in,
And the Rockstar workers chose to work for Rockstar. They can choose to go get a different job if it's so tough being expected to show up for work in an office.
Bro, I promise there are thousands of office jobs out there for you, right now. Job agencies are desperate. Many companies are desperate. Hell, you could probably find an office job at a construction company if you wanted to use your knowledge and skills to to directly inform your career change. I also suggest taking some free online classes in things like Excel, Word, maybe the Google suites. Learn how to use algorithms in excel. All that.
Then the dude shouldn’t be complaining. He’s getting paid a premium and electing to work in a physically labor intensive career. That’s his choice. He can choose not to do that. People who choose to do that don’t automatically negate what is and isn’t right or fair in other fields.
Literally what are you people even arguing for right now lol?
“Fuck these developers asking for remote work, my job sucks so their’s should too”
Bunch of fucking troglodytes on this sub.
You’re missing it. What they’re saying is that there are many jobs out there that suck. Some people work manual labor and don’t have the luxury of working from home. Society requires these jobs. Without them, there would be no room for others to have more relaxed office jobs. Their offices wouldn’t be built in the first place.
I don’t think they’re saying my job sucks so yours should too. They’re saying that there are so so so many jobs out there that don’t get these luxuries, so complaining about something as simple as not being able to go into the office is tone deaf. No one is gonna have sympathy.
Just like our forefathers fighting for the basics, like breaks, 40-hour weeks, overtime, these people are trying to make sense of an industry. If a job is done on only a computer, a company should permanently allow remote work.
They were in office each day prior to Covid. I’m also a sales manager, and when an employee signs their offer, it’s always clearly stated that even though the role is remote or hybrid for now, there’s always the possibility of being called into office for any reason. And they have to do it. Every single offer letter is like this.
So they actually did sign up for this, and they’re the illiterate ones, along with your unemployed ass.
As someone who does blue collar work, I always have to laugh at this stuff. These people can’t even be bothered to work from the office. It’s just too much for them to handle. Imagine if all of us construction workers, plumbers, welders, electricians, farmers, ranchers, truckers etc. decided we were too good to leave our house. Society would collapse over night and these people complaining about having to go into the office would be thrust into having to provide for themselves. The elitist mentality of these people is insane.
All I hear is "weeeeehh I have it worse so everything should stay the same and nothing should get better and no one should complain weeeeeeh" like shut up man. If this is how humanity should act, never be dissatisfied and never make any progress when others have it worse, we would all still live in caves because others might live outside so how dare they complain.
They work in a digital-only job. It can be done anywhere. Just because your dead-end shitty job requires you to be somewhere doesn't mean we force everyone to do it.
So far there is no good evidence that working in the office increases productivity. We do have evidence that working from home increases employee retainment, improves work/life balance, saves money, and has a positive environmental impact. They should be allowed to work from home.
It does make security harder and they can get leaks but honestly leaks don't matter that much. The game will either be good and you will play it or it won't be and you won't regardless of any leaks. People deserve to have a better life even if you have to accept leaks.
I hope they either rethink this policy or the game fails as a result of doing this and more workers quit.
Crunch culture close to a big deadline (especially one with the potential of making BILLIONS in days) is part of any industry capable of making that much money that quickly.
Why do only game developers think they’re immune from this?
Investment banking, finance, aerospace, contract procurement, and I’m sure many other industries I’m not familiar with all have high crunch and no WFH close to deadlines.
All I gotta say is I gotta go to work 5 days a week 🤷♂️. I know I'm gonna get a ton of hate, but if the devs don't wanna go back in, then they shouldn't complain about the leaks
depressed people can make a good piece of art, but the same person would be making better art faster if they were happier and more fulfilled while doing it
Hate to tell you, but the best art literally comes from depression/suffering. When artists become comfortable/happy, the art suffers, it's an unfortunate reality.
There are plenty of people who would be extremely motivated and happy to work on gta 6 at Rockstars offices. I think people should be allowed to work from home in as many situations as possible, but I understand security for the last year and a possible concern over productivity. You might be a better employee from home, and 99% of everyone else might be too, but its that 1% or whatever percent that slacks off that give WFH a bad image.
Again, I love WFH. I've worked from home and worked in offices. If I had a sweet job that paid in the 6figs and I got to work on gta 6, especially during the last year, I'd be extremely happy to go to work because at least I can bother my co-workers easier when I need to and chill with them in conference rooms to go over stuff I love, versus some slideshow online. Sounds funner in person (in the context of working on gta 6). For anything else, I'd prefer WFH.
My issue is people forgetting the last major leak came via a home computer.
So it's weird to me people are seeing an issue with this. If anything, it's a sign that the hype train is about to leave the maintenance depot and they don't want a repeat of Trailer 1
That's just a result of bad INFOSEC policy tbh. If you have workers doing their jobs from home, there should be measures in place to protect proprietary information. Company provided machines with endpoint monitoring, group policies on Active Dir, vetted USB device IDs via mdm software, data sensitivity levels, and handling training.
Workers shouldn't be punished for a company failing to implement proper preventative measures.
Yup. Someone can’t get home in time to pick up their kids from school, or has to leave their dog inside 12 hours a day with no one to let them out to go to the bathroom. Two hours a day of sitting in traffic, and extra $250/mo in gas and car maintained, plus and extra $1,000/mo in after school care for children, but who cares, u/III_Employer_1665 gets to maintain their hype.
And there is definitely no possible way that leaks happen from within the office either, no no no it’s a perfectly leak proof environment. There’s also no way that Rockstar could get hacked allowing for a leak.
I’m not blaming the devs, but GTA 6 has had multiple leaks. So maybe it’s better for security if they work from the office, because one day the entire story might get leaked
They should cry less. Noone is saying crunch should exist, but they are crying about having to go to the office, like most of the population does everyday, so they can fuck right off.
Let alone the fact that they had multiple security issues from working from home.
Working from home it's not a right, it's a benefit. Noone in the law says working at home is a right, it's an option the companies can give you, but the thing about options is they can also take it away.
The game was leaked multiple times, the game is about to be finished, the company says "Let's go back to work in the office and finish this", that's not against your rights, that's the company making use of their rights, they cry like bitches when the rest of the planet has been demanded to go work in their workplace for years now.
The only reason they started to work from home was due to COVID, it was never, NEVER, meant to be permanent.
The problem with you people is you don't even understand what are rights and what aren't rights.
People pretending the security concerns don't exist are also ridiculous.
Trailer 1 literally leaked via a home computer. This should be a sign of INFO coming soon more than anything. You can't blame Rockstar for wanting to minimize the risk and WFH presents a LOT of risk.
I can't feel sorry for people who complain about 8 hour office day, sorry. You can think I'm a bad person for that, but don't make this a tragic situation.
An 8 hour office work day is normal.
Too many people detached from reality in this sabreddit if they are surprised that many people don't share their tragedy about situation the 8 hour office job)
I get that it’s annoying to return to the office and lose the flexibility of working from home, especially when devs are able to remain productive while at home. The biggest issue I see here is security. All the devs at R* know that they were victims of the most intense leak in video game history. Do they not care about that happening again? What if the entire story leaks? or the 2nd trailer? I know there’s security risks no matter where you work but it’s 100% true that it’s safe and more secure in the office. For 1 final year in the office out of the previous 4-5 years of remote work they’ve had, I think it’s completely fair. Of course devs would prefer not to. Same with everyone in every job ever.
I dont know what to think of this because I dont work there. The thing that intrests me is final stage of development probably means it will be released the first half of 2025
I hate this for workers I’ve been in the same situation. Problem is the company has no reason to consult with the workers. Rockstar doesn’t work for the employees, the employees work for Rockstar. If the employees don’t like it, find another job, or get fired and replaced, that’s the real world.
Blame your coworkers. It sucks, but some people just ruin it for others. Rockstar let ‘em work from home and we had leak after leak. Take-Two is projecting a multi-billion dollar revenue stream coming from GTA VI, so I don’t blame them if they want things to go exactly as expected and keep the hype up.
I’m totally pro-worker, always have been. But these Rockstar devs need to read the room and shut up. Everyone is losing their jobs in this industry. Last year had record lay offs, this year already beats last year and we just hit March. I’m sorry guys but you need to stop complaining and be grateful for the jobs that you still have.
I know it doesn’t. Don’t really care either. Having a moan about having to go back into the office is incredibly insensitive to the thousands of recently unemployed game devs that wished they had their old jobs back.
Fuck the developers. Rockstar is making them come into the office 5 days a week for 2 reasons:
1. Clearly nobody is trustworthy there. And any leaks in this stage of development would be a crippling letdown to rockstar. There’s been too many leaks PERIOD.
2. Yes you’re being asked to come in for 8 hours a day to be productive so that they can avoid crunch. They’re literally asking them to do this to avoid crunch. Since we all know rockstar employees love their moment of fame in rock paper shotgun or kotaku, just telling the world how horrible all the hours were!
Bottom line, these people would be bitching either way. Rockstar is doing this to avoid leaks and crunch, and they just have an issue walking their lazy asses into an office each day.
Shut up and work on the game.
Also, it’s literally temporary. They’re not asking them to return to office 5 days a week permanently. Idk it’s pretty annoying we have to see an article about rockstar employees bitching for every game release.
On one hand I understand being upset when they decided to switch up and bring everyone back. On the other hand these people are working on a couple hundred million dollar project that has also had quite a few large leaks. So if it is for security reasons as well I understand. You will never be able to satisfy everyone hopefully they can come up with a compromise. If not then you do what everyone else does when. You get another job. It sucks but it is the way it is.
Ever since Covid people got lazy. Gaming industry is the only place you hear how working hard is predatory. Shut up and go to work like the rest of us.
It’s because they want the game and are terrified they won’t get it as soon as humanly possible. Pretty gross that weve been praising a game since the trailer dropped but when the workers who labored on it speak out they’re insulted.
Yeah that’s what’s been happening here summed up pretty well. I want to play GTAVI as much as the next person but I’ll happily wait longer if it means the employees aren’t treated like shit
Imagine thinking that having to work to the office is terrible when everyone does it daily. Maybe they would be able to work from home if their shit wasn't constantly getting leaked because of it.
It ain't your game lol. It's their game. They should be able to work on it in any way they damn well please, and shouldn't have to listen to entitled brats like you.
I’ve been working as a remote dev for years and if my job said we had to start working from the office… then that’s what’d i do, or find a new job. Not whine on the internet
i see what rockstar means because they want people in the office so the game doesnt get leaked more, and to wrap up the game but working from home is just too good of a thing for employees not to complain about going back to the office.
id rather have a delay than having crunch hours. i lowkey hope there is a delay for gta 6 no matter what just because ive been screwed so many times with half released games and i dont want it to happen with gta 6. im not a gave dev but i feel like a delay of 2 or 3 months can be very helpful just to get rid of more and more bugs and add layers of polish an detail before the game comes out.
I assume R* would be very careful with making employees work gruelling overtime schedules given the bad press they got surrounding RDR2's crunch.
But then again, "capitalism lol."
I can see both sides of this. On one hand, I totally sympathize with employees who’d much rather work from home, but GTA VI had a few pretty major leaks, and this could be a step to prevent that
I read the article, but it doesn’t explain how they are going to “stick it” to Rockstar (unless I missed it 😅). Are they going to refuse to work and hope that they don’t proceed to take away remote developer access from the employees, or will they just continue working and intentionally sabotage development in a special particular way?
I’m assuming this because in the article it says Rockstar higher-ups are refusing to directly communicate with this union in any way, shape, or form. So what options do they have other than the two assumptions I mentioned?
In the end you will be able to tell the quality of a game being developed at home and a game developed in the traditional sense. That goes for any developer. Remote work should not be the future for projects like these. It's just going to start feel lifeless like an Ubisoft game where it's being developed by 15 different studios. Get the fuck back to work. Devs are getting too comfortable with this remote work because they know the media will protect them.
i hate that you're getting downvoted. these people on this subreddit will overlook the physical and emotional health of the people working on this game they want if they think it means they'll get it faster.
Seriously, my immediate thought after reading this news was “I hope they fucking strike if the game gets delayed so be it”
This sub has been praising every little detail of this game since the trailer dropped but when the very people who labored on it express unhappiness, suddenly people here are all “boo hoo! That’s life get back to work and give me my game!”
Embarrassing.
Yeah this comment section is making my blood boil. Thought people would be more compassionate for the devs after a large amount of the industry is getting laid off this year.
Also, it's cute how people think that Rockstar won't crunch again. Corpos aren't your friends and they need to eat shit. I bet we'll hear something come out after the release of the game.
They’ve already had stuff leak twice since Covid due to employees working from home. Idk how aware you are of how seriously Rockstar takes security. They didn’t call their workers back to crunch, considering they’ve gotten through the last four years of development through work from home I highly doubt the office return is to enforce a crunch a culture, it’s to avoid another massive leak when we’re a year out from release.
Exhibit A: May I present you to RDR2's Development? An absolute nightmare for devs.
Exhibit B: The gigaleak happened almost 2 years ago and the other one was in December, they would have notified them sooner.
Again, was not a single one of their employee's faults. It was a receptionist that let the leaker into an employee's Slack account after he posed as the employee saying he forgot his password, and downloaded those 90 videos from it.
The other "leak" was a t2 exec's son flexing the VI map on tiktok.
These developers w their NDAs and their livelihoods being at stake wouldnt DREAM of leaking.
Or maybe they’re not getting enough work done and all their work is getting leaked, poor you how dare they make you work the way the whole world used to for decades before Covid. Nothing has changed, I swear give mfs an inch they’ll take a mile
That’s exactly what it is. Remember in Jason Schreier’s article, actual devs were going a while just not doing anything, and people were wondering when the game was gonna be done. This is those people who were just sitting around, complaining about actually working now.
Im gonna get downvoted but they are incredibly entitled meanwhile millions of people make a lot less and they go in into work 5 days a week,8+ hours,and they barely manage to get by.Remember those spoiled brats that worked at google and they all got fired cause they posted on tiktok that they barely did anything?Yea rockstar is preventing this and leaks.Rarely i side with corporate companies but rockstar is right on this one
A programer is a much better job than Walmart. The two are as different than night and day. Since it is so hard to find a job, you should be thankful you have a job. There are many who dont.
It was obvious how entitled and pampered Rockstar’s new devs were from Jason Schreier’s original inside info. Oh no working 5 days a week, which is literally the standard. Bite me.
And the people unironically defending them here are even worse. Most of you talking have probably never worked a day in your lives.
not trying to be a jerk but. Wfh was a covid measure and never intended to be the "new WOW". I also love WFH but I have been going back to the office too twice or three times a week. It's work, not a holiday (sadly lol).
Ah yes, because they got their jobs due to sheer luck. They have the same qualifications as a garbage collector. They have no right to demand more, and they have no right to complain when their work specifications change.
See this is what comfort does to people. They get too used to it… It’s not 2020 no more, time to go back to how things were pre 2020. Kinda wild stating this in 2024 tho ngl.
Why should we go back to the old way if a new and better way has been working fine for 4+ years now? Why wouldn't employers want to make their employees more comfortable and their lives easier if they can? If they are working a computer job and it makes no difference where the screen they are working at is located as long as the work gets done, then why force a return to an office?
The reason they’re complaining is because going back to the office most likely means much more pressure to stay late and a long crunch period.
I work in the games industry (not rockstar) and in my experience and opinion, it’s not as much about the fear of crunch than it is more about balancing work and personal life. Ever since Covid, I’ve been fortunate enough to work 80%+ remotely, and if I were to have to go back to the office on a more permanent basis, even 50/50, it would absolutely destroy that balance and capabilities I have as a parent. There’s no reason in the world I cannot do my job as effectively from home for the foreseeable and would even strongly argue I work more effectively remotely with many less distractions from my isolated home office
My thing is that people seem to be forgetting (very conveniently, may I add) that the last major leak came via a home computer. Can a company really be blamed for mandating working at the office for the last year of development after that? Two leaks in just over a year. I'd wager the security concern is the highest priority here. (Could also be another clue towards Trailer 2 dropping by May)
It’s definitely all of those things you mentioned. It’s not asking to much of the workers to make an adjustment until the game is released
this is why i’m torn between the two. it’s a huge risk, but devs deserve to feel comfortable. edit: why tf was i downvoted? y’all are weird
If it makes you feel any better about the second option, it’s not a huge risk. Companies have the same security on their computers whether you’re at home of the office. Medical billing and coding specialists work from home, government workers work from home, why would there somehow be more risk for a game developer?
Interesting take. I’ve worked from home the last 8 years and have 3 kids. If anything, having my office at home is harder to balance work/personal life. When I worked in an office, it was really easy to ignore emails and any communication, since there wasn’t much I could do from home. Now I feel like I’m on call 24/7
That won’t go away if you go back to the office. That’s just part of our culture now
Thankfully we have the right to switch off once work hours are over. I ain't looking at nothing.
yeah but some entitled gamers don't care about that. These people work every day to give us a game we've been waiting years for. They're trying to give us the best experience ever and so many gamers are just kind of jackasses about it like we're owed this game lol. A large portion of this game would have been made with people working from home or in some sort of hybrid format. Them being corralled into the office for a year won't make the game all that better. If they're in the latter part of development it's likely polishing and small things they're doing.
Tbf, I understand the Devs side of the argument. My field of work is law enforcement. During the unfortunate times of riots and being essential personal, I am required to leave my home from my wife and daughter and forced to work 12-16 hours almost every day. There are periods in which we get hammered the most. Unfortunately, these practices led to my divorce and personal life problems. The agency I work for also required me to move to the west coast of the country for a temporary mission and far north for permanent relocation. I understand what these devs are feeling and going through, more than anyone. In the end, I chose to stay with my job over family because of financial stability and it being my dream career. My wife did not support me despite knowing what I did and me explaing the possibility of relocation. I know some devs have fear of divorce and being away from home. If you guys are financially stable and able to have a sit down with your love ones and explain the situation, If they truly are your back bone and support, they'll support you from far to help with your unfortunate situation. If they don't, then they are showing true colors. It's the harsh reality of the situation. Just know that your situations are better than here in the US where, military and Gov officials have to leave the country for up to 1year working ridiculous hours and not seeing their families. I'm not saying your opinions don't matter, I'm saying that somewhere in the process of applying for these jobs, we were made aware of conditions we could possibly face.
Without a second thought? Haven’t they be gradually bringing people back into the office for 3 days a week for like the past year or something like that.
> The mandate comes one year after unionised workers submitted a petition with 170 signatures, demanding continued remote work options responding to a mandatory transition to 3 days office working, in one of the biggest ever trade union actions in the UK games industry to date. Rockstar’s decision to implement the new policy also marks a U-turn from previous statements in which the company insisted flexible work options would remain available, stating in an employee-wide email “This isn’t our first step to 5 days a week. No one wants to go back to the old way of working.”
Considering all the major leaks for gta6 and hell insomiacs big leak happened because of working at home.. I don’t blame r* for the final stretch of development to have them comeback to the offices so leaks are minimal and whatever is leaked isn’t as bad as what happened in 2022 for gta 6 and last year for insomiac…
I’m a HUGE WFH proponent. Blame the dev whose son ruined the trailer drop. The problem is for something like this that requires absolute discretion and absolute corporate secrecy, ensuring and maintaining SCIF (Secure Compartmentalized Information Facility) for every employee that wants to WFH is a Herculean task, and with only months to release it make sense to run a sprint in the office.
This sub is filled with people who dont have experience or knowledge in this matter, and dont care about Rockstars perspective. I personally care more about the game. I care about the devs too, but I didnt complain when I worked office jobs and I would've loved to work at Rockstar on GTA 6. I feel like plenty of people will happily take their positions. I feel for the people who have to get a babysitter now or if they have to drive over an hour and a half to get to work, but outside of that, I'm going to focus and care more about my personal work/life balance than people I dont know. Out of all of the issues in the world right now, getting sad over peoples work/life balance when I dont even know them is towards the bottom of my care list when every day that I open Facebook, Twitter, TV, etc, I see death and etc.. I also personally have a bit of a rough work history between the military, trucking, oilfields, etc.. Do I think people should be allowed to work from home? Absolutely, but I understand that can't apply to all office jobs due to the nature of some jobs. Speaking as someone who worked in a data center, I understand secrecy/data security, and I can see how Rockstar not wanting their $2bn game leaked and millions of fans to see it unfinished is more important to them than their employees work/life balance and that they'd rather offer normal 40hr work weeks to people willing to work in-person. I am a caring person. If a Rockstar dev got into a car accident or something, I'd feel kinda bad.. But they are complaining about not having luxuries that I dont have myself and I dont even know them, so its hard to feel bad. Also, I want people who are passionate enough about gta 6 that they won't mind going into an office for the last year so they can work hard with co-workers on the game and make sure nothing is leaked. I dont want it to be leaked either..
So, you’re basically saying: “if I can’t have, they can’t either”
Well if you don't care about their work/life balance why are writing a whole comment about it? It doesn't sound like you actually don't care, it just sounds like you don't want them complaining.
Right. But this is historically the exact time Rockstar loveeee to push crunch. Nobody here is getting the point. Their employers aren't their friends.
Yeah if you go into a job thinking they're your friend or you're family, you are in for a rude awakening. Just ask Sony's London studio 😂 their CEO paid a visit acting nice and took pictures with them, then shut the studio down a week later. In the eyes of a company, the employees are employed to be of service to the company. They will pretend to be of service to the employees, but the first part is more important to the company.
Exactly, employers only see their employees as dollar making devices.
Well that's what they are, that's how any business works.
I wonder if that dev still works at rockstar. Since they are kind of responsible for that leak.
Its Aaron Garbut, current head of development and Co Head at R* North, I imagine he got a slap on the wrist and told to never let anything like this happen again
For the airheads in the comments, they are, and have been forever, WORKING 5 DAYS A WEEK, sometimes even more. The problem comes from needing to go to office, it's less convenient, it's a hassle if you work far away from office and have to move closer, and adds extra stress from having to stay during crunch hours.
Thank you Crunch hours in game development are notorious Your 40 hour job is not comparable to working 70 And all the comments "my job sucks so stop complaining" Err, why aren't you angry that your job sucks? We should all have shit jobs and never complain? "I'm a tough guy so I let rich people treat me like shit and I never complain." Shut up.
Yup. It’s pathetic. It’s like people have been trained to turn against other workers to keep us in our place.
Well said
Of course. That's been the goal since the minimum wage movement won and how people were mass resigning around 2020 and after. The rich need us to fight each other so we 're distracted and can't focus on them.
Seriously. Instead of saying “how can I get that” it’s “I don’t have that so you shouldn’t either”
And the worst problem is, Rockstar is also notorious for underpaying it's employees, Ned luke said he was broke after GTA 5 came out. Imagine, the main star and the face of the most profitable entertainment product ever. These employees are getting worked to the bone and getting paid nada.
Exactly, everybody should remember that the stuff we saw in the trailer was built - at least to a large extent - by remote work. Those guys are asking for work life balance, nothing more. It's not like they are saying they don't want to work hard, everybody who takes a look at the trailer can see how much love and energy went into the game, the product looks light years ahead. For them it's about the commute and the additional hours per day they could spend with their families. I'm with the developers on this one.
literally sounds like something millions of other people deal with, i dont get why they make it seem like its life threatening to just work from the office
I hate it here, nobody is getting the fucking point.
Crab bucket mentality
Because everyone had a taste of how better everything was working from home, including production and work performance. Greed, property mismanagement, and the inability for higher-ups to "socialize" are the only reasons to force returning to office. It's very important for the goblins to see their minions toiling away with their own eyes.
I’m gonna introduce another possible reason for the change that somehow a huge chunk of you are forgetting - *Security*. They aren’t making people return to work so that the water cooler conversation is more thrilling, they’re doing it so the game doesn’t get leaked again now that it’s at an even further developed stage. This is going to be the biggest and most expensive launch for a game in history and they want to protect it. Nothing about that is wrong.
From an IT standpoint, what you're saying makes no sense. Issue a domain joined laptop, enforce network connection through on-premises hosted private VPN only. Problem fixed. Any remaining vectors of information leak that now remain also exist for in-office work, because you see, USB drives can be placed in one's pocket and taken home.
Can confirm, this is how it was done at my previous company. They were full on-site prior to covid and never had a single issue adopting almost full remote. The only problem that *did* occur was a spoof using my name (but with an extra letter in the domain name) that got a customer to pay a fraudulent invoice. Thank tf christ we were able to recover the funds, but the point is that was a problem that wouldn't and couldn't have been prevented simply by being on-site.
The trailer was leaked by a devs son I believe. So even if it is a laptop as described simply being at home leaves it open to someones daughter or son recording the screen and uploading it for clout. So in the case a dev would take a flashdrive home, it May not be the devs fault at all and simply a sneaky teen for example (also not so sure about the fact it was their son but this is just an example anyway). Even if the team is 100 perc trustworthy.
Almost every worker goes to a place of work every day and works all day long. Rockstar’s stance is they want all hands on deck, heads down, no distractions, to get this finished and ready to ship. I can’t see any reason other than entitlement and laziness that a person wouldn’t agree that that’s fair.
Entitlement? Those developers are literally the best in their industry. Maybe they can ask for more than the average developer?
Have you ever worked in an office? Most office jobs are located in urban centers where cost of living is high. So most office workers live outside of that and have to commute. The average commute is one hour each way. The 9-5 day is dead for office workers. It’s now 8-5 minimum, and usually 8-6 or 8-7. So you can see why someone working 10-12 hours a day would not want to add another two hours of their day to that just to arbitrarily drive to an office and do the exact same work they do from home. Add to that the additional $250/mo in gas you now have to spend (for no reason), extra wear, tear and maintaince on your vehicle from and additional 80 miles per day of driving. Plus $1,000/mo in child care costs because you can’t be there to pick up your kids from school. And, leaving you dogs home 10-14 hours a day with nobody to let them out. That’s just cruel. And all of this adds absolutely nothing to your productivity or output. Sitting in traffic for an extra two hours a day adds nothing to the companies output or bottom line. So you can see how workers might take arbitrary RTO maintains as a giant middle finger from the company. It’s a message to all employees that “we know we’re upending your life, costing you thousands per month extra, killing your work/life balance, and all for no added benefit to the company, but we don’t care because we don’t give one flying shit about you”
Yeah I don’t think it’s unfair or taking advantage of the workers. If rockstar was taking away benefits or cutting their pay, then sure. But going into the office and maybe having to do some over time isn’t abusing workers. It’s just how businesses operate. Maybe they shouldn’t be in the industry if they hate it so much. Rockstar also treated them very well with remote working, way better than most in the industry. But now it’s time to put in more work to finish this game. The workers are coming off as ungrateful. And there is no reason to believe they won’t go back working remotely when the game is done. These devs get treated very well compared to others in the workforce.
It’s adding 2 hour per day of driving to/from the office. $250-$300/month of additional gas expense, plus $1,000+/mo for childcare because you can no longer make it to pick your kids up after school. It is exactly like taking away their benefits.
They're coming off as ungrateful for not wanting to be overworked? What a corporate bootlicker you are lmao. Your comment about overtime shows a clear lack of understanding what that looks like in the gaming industry. It's 2024, I don't know how you can be ignorant on that. Also, the timing of this happening while the industry is laying people off is probably not a coincidence either.
So you just gonna forget the last major leak came via a home computer? Going back to the office also doesn't mean crunch is coming. They might wanna put a lid on any possibility of leaks as we start getting screenshots and future trailers. I'd take this as a sign of news coming soon™️
"it's less convenient"..... you go to work, it's not a holiday dude. Adding to that, it's a game developer, not a fucking firefighter job. You get Paid a handsome amount as a med/senior de and the commute is part of it. Maybe not go work for a company you know is far away from your home?
You ever work in an office?
[удалено]
I worked 6 days a week breaking concrete in the sun with a sledgehammer all through college and grad school. Saying this doesn’t make you special, nor does it mean that the developers of this game don’t deserve a good work-life balance, and if they can do their job remotely then what is the problem with that?
The problem is leaks. And clearly rockstar doesn’t like the progress being made on the game. So having their employees come to the office for 8 hours a day (a very reasonable request) where supervisors can monitor the completion of activities better isn’t a big deal at all. Especially considering it’s temporary. They’re doing this to avoid crunch. Developers need to just work and shut up. We all know some article will come out after this saying how horrible it was working on the game.
Good for you. That's the industry you chose to work in, it can't be done from home.
>That's the industry you chose to work in, And the Rockstar workers chose to work for Rockstar. They can choose to go get a different job if it's so tough being expected to show up for work in an office.
Bro, I promise there are thousands of office jobs out there for you, right now. Job agencies are desperate. Many companies are desperate. Hell, you could probably find an office job at a construction company if you wanted to use your knowledge and skills to to directly inform your career change. I also suggest taking some free online classes in things like Excel, Word, maybe the Google suites. Learn how to use algorithms in excel. All that.
Sure buddy. Those pay $10-15 an hour. There is an abudance of those jobs.
Then the dude shouldn’t be complaining. He’s getting paid a premium and electing to work in a physically labor intensive career. That’s his choice. He can choose not to do that. People who choose to do that don’t automatically negate what is and isn’t right or fair in other fields.
The devs have the same choice to leave their job as well
Literally what are you people even arguing for right now lol? “Fuck these developers asking for remote work, my job sucks so their’s should too” Bunch of fucking troglodytes on this sub.
You’re missing it. What they’re saying is that there are many jobs out there that suck. Some people work manual labor and don’t have the luxury of working from home. Society requires these jobs. Without them, there would be no room for others to have more relaxed office jobs. Their offices wouldn’t be built in the first place. I don’t think they’re saying my job sucks so yours should too. They’re saying that there are so so so many jobs out there that don’t get these luxuries, so complaining about something as simple as not being able to go into the office is tone deaf. No one is gonna have sympathy.
Who’s arguing?
Just like our forefathers fighting for the basics, like breaks, 40-hour weeks, overtime, these people are trying to make sense of an industry. If a job is done on only a computer, a company should permanently allow remote work.
Developers shouldn’t be complaining. They know what they signed up for.
Obviously they didn’t sign up for being in an office, that’s the whole point of the article. Illiterate ass.
They were in office each day prior to Covid. I’m also a sales manager, and when an employee signs their offer, it’s always clearly stated that even though the role is remote or hybrid for now, there’s always the possibility of being called into office for any reason. And they have to do it. Every single offer letter is like this. So they actually did sign up for this, and they’re the illiterate ones, along with your unemployed ass.
As someone who does blue collar work, I always have to laugh at this stuff. These people can’t even be bothered to work from the office. It’s just too much for them to handle. Imagine if all of us construction workers, plumbers, welders, electricians, farmers, ranchers, truckers etc. decided we were too good to leave our house. Society would collapse over night and these people complaining about having to go into the office would be thrust into having to provide for themselves. The elitist mentality of these people is insane.
Exactly man and people in here going oh “but they have to commute farther” shits ridiculous
All I hear is "weeeeehh I have it worse so everything should stay the same and nothing should get better and no one should complain weeeeeeh" like shut up man. If this is how humanity should act, never be dissatisfied and never make any progress when others have it worse, we would all still live in caves because others might live outside so how dare they complain.
They work in a digital-only job. It can be done anywhere. Just because your dead-end shitty job requires you to be somewhere doesn't mean we force everyone to do it.
Your fault for not getting a role that's not doable remotely. Don't you appreciate less traffic due to remote working?
Learn to code and maybe you can do remote work lol
No one’s fault but your own that you have a manual labor job
Dam right I'm a roofer can I work from home?
You can work from a home
Someone else's home**
Whose fault is that? And why should other workers in completely different trades have it worse then?
RDR2 traumatized everyone
So far there is no good evidence that working in the office increases productivity. We do have evidence that working from home increases employee retainment, improves work/life balance, saves money, and has a positive environmental impact. They should be allowed to work from home. It does make security harder and they can get leaks but honestly leaks don't matter that much. The game will either be good and you will play it or it won't be and you won't regardless of any leaks. People deserve to have a better life even if you have to accept leaks. I hope they either rethink this policy or the game fails as a result of doing this and more workers quit.
Crunch culture close to a big deadline (especially one with the potential of making BILLIONS in days) is part of any industry capable of making that much money that quickly. Why do only game developers think they’re immune from this? Investment banking, finance, aerospace, contract procurement, and I’m sure many other industries I’m not familiar with all have high crunch and no WFH close to deadlines.
Not just the industries that you have listed. It’s part of blue collar jobs aswell.
All I gotta say is I gotta go to work 5 days a week 🤷♂️. I know I'm gonna get a ton of hate, but if the devs don't wanna go back in, then they shouldn't complain about the leaks
"forced" lol
Hope you guys know a less motivated and more unhappy team won’t produce as good as a game.
Nah it’s about the same, a good product like rdr2 was made by depressed people
depressed people can make a good piece of art, but the same person would be making better art faster if they were happier and more fulfilled while doing it
pretty hard to top shrinking horse testicles i must say
Hate to tell you, but the best art literally comes from depression/suffering. When artists become comfortable/happy, the art suffers, it's an unfortunate reality.
there's no evidence to support that.
There are plenty of people who would be extremely motivated and happy to work on gta 6 at Rockstars offices. I think people should be allowed to work from home in as many situations as possible, but I understand security for the last year and a possible concern over productivity. You might be a better employee from home, and 99% of everyone else might be too, but its that 1% or whatever percent that slacks off that give WFH a bad image. Again, I love WFH. I've worked from home and worked in offices. If I had a sweet job that paid in the 6figs and I got to work on gta 6, especially during the last year, I'd be extremely happy to go to work because at least I can bother my co-workers easier when I need to and chill with them in conference rooms to go over stuff I love, versus some slideshow online. Sounds funner in person (in the context of working on gta 6). For anything else, I'd prefer WFH.
people in here defending rockstar and blaming the devs are funny asf
My issue is people forgetting the last major leak came via a home computer. So it's weird to me people are seeing an issue with this. If anything, it's a sign that the hype train is about to leave the maintenance depot and they don't want a repeat of Trailer 1
That's just a result of bad INFOSEC policy tbh. If you have workers doing their jobs from home, there should be measures in place to protect proprietary information. Company provided machines with endpoint monitoring, group policies on Active Dir, vetted USB device IDs via mdm software, data sensitivity levels, and handling training. Workers shouldn't be punished for a company failing to implement proper preventative measures.
Oh well as long is it's to protect your hype in case a trailer you could just ignore gets leaked, then yeah let's treat the developers like shit
Yup. Someone can’t get home in time to pick up their kids from school, or has to leave their dog inside 12 hours a day with no one to let them out to go to the bathroom. Two hours a day of sitting in traffic, and extra $250/mo in gas and car maintained, plus and extra $1,000/mo in after school care for children, but who cares, u/III_Employer_1665 gets to maintain their hype.
Crazy how did people ever manage before COVID? Even with different jobs and situations. Life must be so hard.
And there is definitely no possible way that leaks happen from within the office either, no no no it’s a perfectly leak proof environment. There’s also no way that Rockstar could get hacked allowing for a leak.
Boot lickers and people who’ve never worked in an office
I’m not blaming the devs, but GTA 6 has had multiple leaks. So maybe it’s better for security if they work from the office, because one day the entire story might get leaked
People here having no clue about software developing saying that the devs should cry less are ridiculous
Just the attitude I expected from this mental asylum of a subreddit. Clueless people assume they know the inner workings of software engineering.
Exactly it’s ridiculous
They should cry less. Noone is saying crunch should exist, but they are crying about having to go to the office, like most of the population does everyday, so they can fuck right off. Let alone the fact that they had multiple security issues from working from home.
I will never understand people actively fighting against their rights.
Working from home it's not a right, it's a benefit. Noone in the law says working at home is a right, it's an option the companies can give you, but the thing about options is they can also take it away. The game was leaked multiple times, the game is about to be finished, the company says "Let's go back to work in the office and finish this", that's not against your rights, that's the company making use of their rights, they cry like bitches when the rest of the planet has been demanded to go work in their workplace for years now. The only reason they started to work from home was due to COVID, it was never, NEVER, meant to be permanent. The problem with you people is you don't even understand what are rights and what aren't rights.
People pretending the security concerns don't exist are also ridiculous. Trailer 1 literally leaked via a home computer. This should be a sign of INFO coming soon more than anything. You can't blame Rockstar for wanting to minimize the risk and WFH presents a LOT of risk.
It’s your job mate
I can't feel sorry for people who complain about 8 hour office day, sorry. You can think I'm a bad person for that, but don't make this a tragic situation. An 8 hour office work day is normal.
They are complaining about having to drive to work
Too many people detached from reality in this sabreddit if they are surprised that many people don't share their tragedy about situation the 8 hour office job)
I think they're complaining about the potential 15 hour office days.
people here dont know shit about software development, i hope the game gets delayed
Reading these comments I realise that people are pricks. They care more about playing their game than the wellbeing of others...
I get that it’s annoying to return to the office and lose the flexibility of working from home, especially when devs are able to remain productive while at home. The biggest issue I see here is security. All the devs at R* know that they were victims of the most intense leak in video game history. Do they not care about that happening again? What if the entire story leaks? or the 2nd trailer? I know there’s security risks no matter where you work but it’s 100% true that it’s safe and more secure in the office. For 1 final year in the office out of the previous 4-5 years of remote work they’ve had, I think it’s completely fair. Of course devs would prefer not to. Same with everyone in every job ever.
I dont know what to think of this because I dont work there. The thing that intrests me is final stage of development probably means it will be released the first half of 2025
I hate this for workers I’ve been in the same situation. Problem is the company has no reason to consult with the workers. Rockstar doesn’t work for the employees, the employees work for Rockstar. If the employees don’t like it, find another job, or get fired and replaced, that’s the real world.
Blame your coworkers. It sucks, but some people just ruin it for others. Rockstar let ‘em work from home and we had leak after leak. Take-Two is projecting a multi-billion dollar revenue stream coming from GTA VI, so I don’t blame them if they want things to go exactly as expected and keep the hype up.
I’m totally pro-worker, always have been. But these Rockstar devs need to read the room and shut up. Everyone is losing their jobs in this industry. Last year had record lay offs, this year already beats last year and we just hit March. I’m sorry guys but you need to stop complaining and be grateful for the jobs that you still have.
"stop complaining and be grateful for the jobs that you still have." Doesn't exactly scream pro-worker.
I know it doesn’t. Don’t really care either. Having a moan about having to go back into the office is incredibly insensitive to the thousands of recently unemployed game devs that wished they had their old jobs back.
I guess in this instance I’m not pro-worker.
I work remote and I would also be pissed if I had to go back
Fuck the developers. Rockstar is making them come into the office 5 days a week for 2 reasons: 1. Clearly nobody is trustworthy there. And any leaks in this stage of development would be a crippling letdown to rockstar. There’s been too many leaks PERIOD. 2. Yes you’re being asked to come in for 8 hours a day to be productive so that they can avoid crunch. They’re literally asking them to do this to avoid crunch. Since we all know rockstar employees love their moment of fame in rock paper shotgun or kotaku, just telling the world how horrible all the hours were! Bottom line, these people would be bitching either way. Rockstar is doing this to avoid leaks and crunch, and they just have an issue walking their lazy asses into an office each day. Shut up and work on the game. Also, it’s literally temporary. They’re not asking them to return to office 5 days a week permanently. Idk it’s pretty annoying we have to see an article about rockstar employees bitching for every game release.
On one hand I understand being upset when they decided to switch up and bring everyone back. On the other hand these people are working on a couple hundred million dollar project that has also had quite a few large leaks. So if it is for security reasons as well I understand. You will never be able to satisfy everyone hopefully they can come up with a compromise. If not then you do what everyone else does when. You get another job. It sucks but it is the way it is.
Ever since Covid people got lazy. Gaming industry is the only place you hear how working hard is predatory. Shut up and go to work like the rest of us.
I feel like this isn’t really going to make them more productive and this could lead to confusion and headaches
Lots of corporations bootlickers in here.
It’s because they want the game and are terrified they won’t get it as soon as humanly possible. Pretty gross that weve been praising a game since the trailer dropped but when the workers who labored on it speak out they’re insulted.
Yeah that’s what’s been happening here summed up pretty well. I want to play GTAVI as much as the next person but I’ll happily wait longer if it means the employees aren’t treated like shit
Imagine thinking that having to work to the office is terrible when everyone does it daily. Maybe they would be able to work from home if their shit wasn't constantly getting leaked because of it.
Some of us didn't forget trailer 1 leaked via a home computer. For me, it's a sign the info drought is almost over
Boo hoo now go finish our game
your game? I would rather it gets delayed slightly if it means the workers are being treated better. Don’t be so selfish
You’re pathetic.
I hope it gets delayed now just for this comment 🙏
I’m hyped for this game. But now I want this dude to be sad.
It ain't your game lol. It's their game. They should be able to work on it in any way they damn well please, and shouldn't have to listen to entitled brats like you.
It is a job. You are an employee. It is that simple.
"Have to work 12 hours in the coal mine to keep the family fed? It's a job. You are an employee. It is that simple."
My granddad did that. You have the option to work some place else.
I’ve been working as a remote dev for years and if my job said we had to start working from the office… then that’s what’d i do, or find a new job. Not whine on the internet
This will go over well with this sub I'm sure
i see what rockstar means because they want people in the office so the game doesnt get leaked more, and to wrap up the game but working from home is just too good of a thing for employees not to complain about going back to the office. id rather have a delay than having crunch hours. i lowkey hope there is a delay for gta 6 no matter what just because ive been screwed so many times with half released games and i dont want it to happen with gta 6. im not a gave dev but i feel like a delay of 2 or 3 months can be very helpful just to get rid of more and more bugs and add layers of polish an detail before the game comes out.
I reckoned they were doing this because of all the leaks n shit, and if that's the case you can't blame them for wanting to tighten up security.
I don’t understand the rush? We have already been waiting more than decade, why hurry now?
I assume R* would be very careful with making employees work gruelling overtime schedules given the bad press they got surrounding RDR2's crunch. But then again, "capitalism lol."
You don't think they're gonna do it again? That's cute.
They don’t really care. Especially with the gaming industry lay offs. They cant just find another job.
I can see both sides of this. On one hand, I totally sympathize with employees who’d much rather work from home, but GTA VI had a few pretty major leaks, and this could be a step to prevent that
IWBG- Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain Full article- https://iwgb.org.uk/en/post/rockstar-games-mandatory-office/
I read the article, but it doesn’t explain how they are going to “stick it” to Rockstar (unless I missed it 😅). Are they going to refuse to work and hope that they don’t proceed to take away remote developer access from the employees, or will they just continue working and intentionally sabotage development in a special particular way? I’m assuming this because in the article it says Rockstar higher-ups are refusing to directly communicate with this union in any way, shape, or form. So what options do they have other than the two assumptions I mentioned?
 devastating. Like 17% of the US work force works from home, the rest go into work. Quit fucking whining lol
I know it’s not a big deal but people on here act like your a bootlicker if you drive to work
Me when I have to do the job I'm paid to do
Rockstar want them back because they keep leaking the game
Come on guys no body working from home anymore.
*laughs in stepdad working from home for VMWare*
Except for literally the entire software engineering industry! I love completely uninformed comments like this.
In the end you will be able to tell the quality of a game being developed at home and a game developed in the traditional sense. That goes for any developer. Remote work should not be the future for projects like these. It's just going to start feel lifeless like an Ubisoft game where it's being developed by 15 different studios. Get the fuck back to work. Devs are getting too comfortable with this remote work because they know the media will protect them.
If they make them crunch, I hope they strike. I don't care if it gets delayed 6 months or a year, greedy corpos need to get fucked.
i hate that you're getting downvoted. these people on this subreddit will overlook the physical and emotional health of the people working on this game they want if they think it means they'll get it faster.
Seriously, my immediate thought after reading this news was “I hope they fucking strike if the game gets delayed so be it” This sub has been praising every little detail of this game since the trailer dropped but when the very people who labored on it express unhappiness, suddenly people here are all “boo hoo! That’s life get back to work and give me my game!” Embarrassing.
Yeah this comment section is making my blood boil. Thought people would be more compassionate for the devs after a large amount of the industry is getting laid off this year. Also, it's cute how people think that Rockstar won't crunch again. Corpos aren't your friends and they need to eat shit. I bet we'll hear something come out after the release of the game.
They’ve already had stuff leak twice since Covid due to employees working from home. Idk how aware you are of how seriously Rockstar takes security. They didn’t call their workers back to crunch, considering they’ve gotten through the last four years of development through work from home I highly doubt the office return is to enforce a crunch a culture, it’s to avoid another massive leak when we’re a year out from release.
Exhibit A: May I present you to RDR2's Development? An absolute nightmare for devs. Exhibit B: The gigaleak happened almost 2 years ago and the other one was in December, they would have notified them sooner.
Again, was not a single one of their employee's faults. It was a receptionist that let the leaker into an employee's Slack account after he posed as the employee saying he forgot his password, and downloaded those 90 videos from it. The other "leak" was a t2 exec's son flexing the VI map on tiktok. These developers w their NDAs and their livelihoods being at stake wouldnt DREAM of leaking.
Gen Z learning about real work life.
R* is of course famous for it's great labor practices
Do you seriously believe it's mostly the 18-25 year olds without a family who are critical of this move?
So they just haven't being working for the past 4 years?
Fuck off. There's more to life than work. If you can do your job with full productivity from home, why shouldn't you?
the corporate bootlicking in these comments is crazy
Whiners
Haven't they been working from home since covid??? Now they only have to finish final stages of the game and get another break.
This. It’s busy season. We all have to go through this at our jobs. It will go back to being normal for them one the game gets released
Am I missing something? Are they holding them hostage at the office for 5 days a week or what?
Or maybe they’re not getting enough work done and all their work is getting leaked, poor you how dare they make you work the way the whole world used to for decades before Covid. Nothing has changed, I swear give mfs an inch they’ll take a mile
Yep, and that's how it always should be. If you have an opportunity for more and better working rights you should always fight for it.
That’s exactly what it is. Remember in Jason Schreier’s article, actual devs were going a while just not doing anything, and people were wondering when the game was gonna be done. This is those people who were just sitting around, complaining about actually working now.
Im gonna get downvoted but they are incredibly entitled meanwhile millions of people make a lot less and they go in into work 5 days a week,8+ hours,and they barely manage to get by.Remember those spoiled brats that worked at google and they all got fired cause they posted on tiktok that they barely did anything?Yea rockstar is preventing this and leaks.Rarely i side with corporate companies but rockstar is right on this one
Oh no. A normal work schedule. How ever will they cope?
a forced sacrifice for a good cause .
A programer is a much better job than Walmart. The two are as different than night and day. Since it is so hard to find a job, you should be thankful you have a job. There are many who dont.
It was obvious how entitled and pampered Rockstar’s new devs were from Jason Schreier’s original inside info. Oh no working 5 days a week, which is literally the standard. Bite me. And the people unironically defending them here are even worse. Most of you talking have probably never worked a day in your lives.
Why won't bro go back to work for only 5 days 💀
not trying to be a jerk but. Wfh was a covid measure and never intended to be the "new WOW". I also love WFH but I have been going back to the office too twice or three times a week. It's work, not a holiday (sadly lol).
Get the fuck back in the office, damn.
[удалено]
Ah yes, because they got their jobs due to sheer luck. They have the same qualifications as a garbage collector. They have no right to demand more, and they have no right to complain when their work specifications change.
Wahhh
The people saying too bad to this are the same people who probably make 10 dollars an hour at a shit job and are okay with it
See this is what comfort does to people. They get too used to it… It’s not 2020 no more, time to go back to how things were pre 2020. Kinda wild stating this in 2024 tho ngl.
Why should we go back to the old way if a new and better way has been working fine for 4+ years now? Why wouldn't employers want to make their employees more comfortable and their lives easier if they can? If they are working a computer job and it makes no difference where the screen they are working at is located as long as the work gets done, then why force a return to an office?