GTA 6 Developers Criticise Rockstar’s ‘Reckless’ Decision to Force Staff Back to the Office

ign.com:

Developers at Rockstar Games have hit out at the company’s decision to force staff to return to the office five days a week to close out work on GTA 6.

This week, Rockstar notified staff of its return-to-office order, due to start in April, which it said had to do with completing development on GTA 6 “at the level of quality and polish we know it requires”, and to mitigate security breaches. GTA 6 is developed primarily at Rockstar North in Edinburgh, Scotland, although support comes from a number of other Rockstar studios across the UK and the world.

Now, the Independent Workers’ union of Great Britain, which represents video game developers in the UK, has publicly criticized Rockstar for the move, and published testimony from current developers who warn it will significantly affect their well-being.

According to the IWGB, last year 170 Rockstar Games workers in the UK signed a petition opposing mandatory three-day office work. Now, workers accuse Rockstar of “broken promises”, and have expressed concern about health, caring responsibilities, living arrangements, and a heightened risk of overwork (crunch). Some workers have said they moved their lives further away from studio locations that would now need to be reversed in under six weeks to comply with Rockstar’s demands. Rockstar is yet to comment.

The IWGB also alleges Rockstar had insisted flexible work options would remain available in an employee-wide email that said: “This isn’t our first step to five days a week. No one wants to go back to the old way of working.” The IWGB went on to claim Rockstar management has so-far refused to engage with workers on the issue, and will “pull the plug” on remote access to technology on April 15.

An anonymous Rockstar worker is quoted as saying: “Working from home has been a lifeline for many of us at Rockstar, allowing us to balance care responsibilities, manage disabilities, and relocate as we need. Now, Rockstar is snatching away that lifeline without a second thought for