‘Grand Theft Auto’ Maker Rockstar Games Asks Workers to Return to Office Five Days a Week

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 352 points – ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Maker Rockstar Games Asks Workers to Return to Office Five Days a Week
bloomberg.com

‘Grand Theft Auto’ Maker Rockstar Games Asks Workers to Return to Office Five Days a Week::Rockstar Games, a division of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., will ask employees to return to the office five days a week beginning in April as the video-game maker enters the final stages of development on its next game, the hotly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI.

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"please come to the office so you can experience the time crunch without the comfort of your own home"

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So Rockstar workers are being asked to take a major pay cut, significant decrease in quality of life, massively increased chance of death (driving is the most dangerous thing we do by far), and a huge chunk of free time removed from every work day from commuting that could be time spent with family or loved ones….

People with families cost more, they always want time off to do 'stuff'. Truly dedicated employees forgo families, time off for 'stuff'. The best employees will spend a good portion of their money just to come back to the office, just because it's demanded.

Signed, Management

How to lose top talent in one easy step. I'm hoping smaller startups are taking notes and hiring these guys for remote work.

Oh baby, they don't see it as losing talent, they want this people to resign so they don't have to use the word layoff.

When you layoff you have the option to lay off what you perceive as your least valuable talent. When you make the workplace less desirable you lose your best talent.

But the ones who stay are the ones most likely to tolerate your bullshit and obey without questioning. Which talent do you think management values the most?

Ultimately they value money. Losing good talent doesn't hurt short term in the short term you are selling the work of the people you just got rid of. It will become apparent when you start falling behind on projections or at worst when you make less money on your next round of games so watch TTWO in 3-5 years

Pssst, that's next quarter's problem. This quarter is up 12% profit because of less salaries. Line goes up.

/s

That's not really accurate. Layoffs tend to be at a senior leadership level, and I'd be shocked if they had an idea of IC performance. Most, if not all layoffs in tech at large companies have been team/org-based, and isn't a reflection of ability.

IMO, this is where many of the top tech companies will struggle.

I work at a big tech company, and we've been bleeding talent over the last 18 months. Many senior and principal engineers have left to do their own thing, usually working on their own thing or for a startup. Many of those that were laid off have probably done the same, where there are opportunities. In the next few years, we'll see new tech take over, and many big companies becoming poorly-run dinosaurs - basically becoming the IBM's of the world...

Good.

My employer decided to embrace WFH from the top down. They are not renewing leases for sales spaces (easiest since they are not tied to labs) and are slowly crunching down to only what need to be in person - R&D and the guys that go out in the field. They do need large warehouse space for multiple 18 wheeler trucks and all the equipment.

Right now we do the stupid hybrid thing, but I just accept it because it’s one day a week and my boss^2 buys us all lunch. He is a really smart Boomer that is lonely and also helps us solve a lot of engineering issues so it is what it is.

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Fuck you rockstar and fuck you too take two

Being set in modern Florida cesspool is probably enough to keep me away. Extremely doubtful Rockstar will deliver anything like RDR2 again (lengthy SP narrative). Take Two already treats GTA like an online subscription and cash cow, I can't imagine their monetization plans for the next one.

I had the attention span to sit down and play...maybe a quarter of GTA 5. If that. At this point, I don't want to have to figure out what I was supposed to do or where to go. I want like...10 to 15 minutes of gameplay I can put down and then do something else and then come back and have another 15 minutes that's equally self-contained. I just feel like GTA punishes you for trying to do that.

I hope this really motivates workers at Rockstar to organize.

The whole tech industry especially games has needed to unionize for ages now

What benefit would a union get me? A lot of the benefits I've seen from unions I already have. I don't want seniority based pay. Its already really hard to get rid of coworkers that underperform to the point of impacting others job performance.

I'm glad that you've got yours but me and a bunch of the people around me are in perpetual fear of being fired on a whim among so many other things and we have no voice in it. I do not trust corporate to do well for me and I don't get any say by myself.

Thats the beauty of being in a high demand line of work? I struggle to see how being a swe could leave you with no voice. You have mobility and are highly paid. If your company isn't doing well go find a new job?

I totally understand why people want unions for lower demand work. But I don't understand it for sw.

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They still get 2 days of home office then! /s

I am one of those oddities that prefers working in the office. I would much rather be at home, of course, but I have the right combination of adhd and fatigue that means I can’t be productive at home.

Plus I am fortunate to live a 5-minute drive away from my office.

But shit, even I don’t want to be expected to be in the office every single day! And that’s working for a reasonable company and not some crunch mode dev house.

I also have ADHD and those little 5 minute pop-ins that happen at the office are productivity killers. It usually takes me 15 min to get back on task and in the zone so 3 of those an hour and the hour is shot. I can get more done in one day at home than 3 in the office.

I too have ADHD and my in office days are so full of interruptions I just don't plan productive work during that time anymore and instead just book them full of pointless meetings.

Working at home I get interrupted exactly once a day by my girlfriend while she plays with our cat on her lunch break since she had a permanent work from home position even before covid.

A single quiet Thursday or Friday let's me out pace all my peers books of work. The company just wastes their money when they make me show up in person. I don't even by lunch or snacks out there or anything so it doesn't even support local economy. Just wasting time and money for people who can't keep their home organized enough to effectively work from.

Maybe shut up for the greater good? They'll never stop you from coming in if you want to, but now is the time to solidify the right for people who don't want to go in.

You don’t want me to share my thoughts on the subject with you guys? The whole point is that I fully support remote and flexible work even though I know from experience that it is not for me. I don’t WANT it to be that way, but I have to work with the brain I’m given.

I’m sure as hell not telling my management what I am telling Lemmy.

Hey Zink, it’s your boss. Can you stop in at HR on Monday to discuss?

Lol he’d be glad to hear because it’s the important work shit that’s in Linux. :D

I still think there shouldn't be a crunch in the first place. People can wait. You can just not post a release date. Just make it easier on yourself and take the time to make a better game before all the libretube headlines are "GTA RUINED?"

Oh yeah of course. But who can be bothered to be decent to a bunch of other humans because some rich dudes that never talk to us really want a 12% return on investment this year rather than a 10% return. As always, the answer is money.

Also, hello other me! I have a beard though, so I must be the evil one and you’re the good one. Damn.

Same as you, but I only like being in when it's quiet lol, so now that mandatory 3 day RTO is a thing for my company am in the office less than before :)

I think there is a benefit to coming in, but when I do get called into the office the 1st 2 hours is like a social gathering. I don't even work in the building my team is assigned to. I just try to hide from everyone to find a quiet place to work. I'll come in, say hi to people, and fuck right off. We don't have assigned desks n we have an area people usually sit at, but I don't want my boss looking over my shoulder, and I don't want to chit chat so I just bounce to a quiet place and then ask myself why I'm even in office.

Anyone have a non-paywalled link?

Rockstar Games, a division of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., will ask employees to return to the office five days a week beginning in April as the video-game maker enters the final stages of development on its next game, the hotly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI.

In an email to staff on Wednesday reviewed by Bloomberg, Rockstar Head of Publishing Jenn Kolbe said the decision was made for productivity and security reasons. The company has faced several security breaches including a massive dump of early footage from the new Grand Theft Auto and an early trailer that leaked in December.

Kolbe wrote that the company also found “tangible benefits” from in-person work. “Making these changes now puts us in the best position to deliver the next Grand Theft Auto at the level of quality and polish we know it requires, along with a publishing roadmap that matches the scale and ambition of the game,” she wrote.

Return-to-office mandates have been a hot topic across various industries since the pandemic forced myriad employees to work from home. More recently, many employers have asked staff to return to the office for two or three days a week. A study last month found that remote work did not have an impact on productivity.

The issue has been particularly controversial among video-game workers thanks to the volatility of the industry and its lack of a centralized workforce. Many of 2023’s biggest video-game hits, such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 from Insomniac Games, were developed remotely.

This security they mention is ridiculous. They have billions they can use to secure workstations and increase security for their systems. Many large companies managed to do this already.. even without near limitless cash. So to me this smells like BS.

Yeah but it cost money to do so. And that would benefit mostly the employees, you can't have that in today's cutthroat capitalism.

The company has faced several security breaches including a massive dump of early footage from the new Grand Theft Auto and an early trailer that leaked in December.

As if this hasn't happened before lmao what a joke they are actually clowns.

so they made gta6 and are being laid off, basically?

This means the layoff notices are due in ~2 months