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A brand new report confirms that as Rockstar Video games is getting into the ultimate levels of growth on Grand Theft Auto 6, the corporate is mandating that workers should return to the workplace 5 days every week beginning in April, to no applause from anybody.
Bloomberg reported on February 28 that the corporate’s head of publishing, Jenn Kolbe, made the return-to-office resolution. In an electronic mail to employees, Kolbe stated that the reasoning for the mandate got here right down to productiveness and safety considerations, significantly following a huge breach in 2022 that spilled the tea on the crime sim. She additionally stated that Rockstar Video games discovered “tangible advantages” from our bodies being in workplace seats.
“Making these modifications now places us in the very best place to ship the following Grand Theft Auto on the stage of high quality and polish we all know it requires, together with a publishing roadmap that matches the size and ambition of the sport,” Kolbe stated.
That sounds good, however nobody’s shopping for it. On Twitter, builders from myriad studios decried the choice, calling the return-to-office mandate “bullshit.” “Return to Workplace Mandates are layoffs,” a former Bungie worker tweeted. “Distant staff are successfully instructed: Transfer or Give up.” “Headline needs to be ‘Rockstar lays off all distant staff,’” posted a Sucker Punch developer.
Devs fear about work-life stability at Rockstar Video games
It’s not simply people exterior of Rockstar Video games which are upset with this mandate. Based on a February 29 IGN report, builders on the studio are criticizing the corporate’s resolution as effectively. Chatting with the publication anonymously, one worker stated that working from house has been “a lifeline for many people,” specifying that Rockstar Video games must “rethink their reckless resolution making and have interaction with their employees” to search out options that work for everybody. One other nameless worker stated they worry having to “work late hours within the workplace,” which might imply builders would miss out on “spending time with our households.”
Additional, the Impartial Staff of Nice Britain, a union that represents U.Okay. builders (Rockstar North in Edinburgh, Scotland is main growth on GTA 6), has additionally slammed Rockstar Video games for the return-to-office transfer. The group’s chair, Austin Kelmore, claimed to IGN in the identical report that firm administration will “pull the plug” on distant entry know-how on April 15, primarily forcing workers to come back into the workplace or else. He continued:
The employees within the IWGB Sport Staff Union at Rockstar are pushing for transparency over pay and promotions, a wholesome and inclusive office tradition, and work life stability [centered] round what every employee wants. It’s unacceptable that Rockstar management have gone again on their phrase time and time once more and have ignored the employees’ requests for fundamental working circumstances. Staff throughout the trade are completed with letting executives make reckless and dangerous choices and the Rockstar staff are exhibiting us the beginning of what’s to come back in the event that they’re regularly ignored. There’s no higher time than now to affix our union and push for this to be the wholesome and sustainable video games trade we all know it may be.
Kotaku has reached out to Rockstar Video games for remark.
Return-to-office mandates have been a hot-button challenge within the video games trade because the covid-19 pandemic upended longstanding methods of doing enterprise. Work-from-home insurance policies have opened the door for a lot of people to search out employment at studios they may not have in any other case, significantly disabled builders who can’t all the time make it to an workplace. Rockstar Video games shouldn’t be the primary developer to insist upon a return to workplace. Activision Blizzard demanded the same of its employees in February 2023.
