For the most part, the lead up to the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 has been a masterclass in marketing, but the hype train hit a bit of a hitch last week when Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser let slip that he and others have been working 100-hour weeks to get the game out the door. Houser would later walk back his comments, saying only the senior writing team was working those kind of hours, but it still ignited a debate about video game industry crunch culture that threatened to derail some of the positivity surrounding Red Dead Redemption 2.
In an effort to get things back on track, Rockstar has relaxed their usually stringent social media policy, and allowed employees to talk freely about their experiences on Twitter. A majority of the tweets have been positive – while most of the employees acknowledge some overtime is a reality, they insist 100-hour weeks don’t happen, and that they’re fairly compensated for their extra hours. Here are Rockstar San Diego programmer Vivianne Langdon’s experiences:
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I’m “non exempt” so my overtime pay starts at 1.5x salary and scales to 2x after 8 hours of OT in a week or 12 hours in a single day, in accordance with California law. Also, I have only been asked to work on weekends once or twice in my entire time at R* on the Tools team.
— Vivianne Langdon 🏳️🌈 (@viiviicat) October 18, 2018
Here’s what Rockstar North tools programmer Zoë Sams had to say:
I haven’t worked a 100 hour work week in my life. I’m thanked for any overtime I am asked to do, and it feels like in those circumstances it truly was an unfortunate situation.
— Spooky Scary SkëlëSams 💀 (@zoegsams) October 18, 2018
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And here’s Rockstar North senior coder Phil Beveridge:
That isn’t saying that overtime doesn’t happen. On average, I’ll do somewhere between 40 to 45-hour weeks, and that can go up to to around 60 for a week or two when deadlines loom. But this is of my own accord, and part of me being a perfectionist with the work I do.
— Phil Beveridge (@philcsf) October 18, 2018
Of course, the question has been asked – are these Rockstar employees really free to speak their minds? Rockstar North employee Wesley Mackinder says they weren’t asked to sugarcoat anything.
Nope. We were told we could say good and bad things and not to sugarcoat anything.
— Wesley Mackinder (@WesleyMackinder) October 18, 2018
Not all the reports were positive. Rockstar North worker Tom Fautley has never worked a 100-hour week, but he’s seen friends get close to that number:
I am asked, encouraged and expected to work overtime (both nights and weekends) when coming up to a big deadline. The most I’ve ever worked in a single week during my nearly-five years here has been 79 hours, but that was not recently.
— Tom Fautley (@noodle6491) October 18, 2018
Here’s another report from an ex Rockstar employee who worked on GTA V:
Probably 12-14 hours days, 6 days a week. Sometimes we were given the choice of which weekend day we wanted off. Probably lasted for a year, as the crunch hours go on way past release to cater for post releases/DLC etc.
— Dylan (@christs_chins) October 15, 2018
So, where’s the truth lie? Perhaps we need an unbiased source – Kotaku’s Jason Schreier has weighed in, basically saying “it’s complicated,” and that both sides are probably telling the truth.
We all crave simple narratives, so it’s tempting to draw conclusions like “These employees said they haven’t crunched hard so the rumors must not be true” or “They must be lying” but the reality is, as always, far more messy and complicated. That’s what I’m planning to explore.
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) October 18, 2018
Current and former employees have told me lots of different things. Rockstar is a complicated company, and one’s experiences might differ drastically depending on their office, their department, and their managers.
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) October 18, 2018
The issue of crunch in video game development is indeed a complicated one. On the one hand, video games are an industry, a product, and those who make them deserve fair treatment. On the other hand, video games are also an artistic medium, and sometimes creativity doesn’t happen on a strict Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 schedule. It’s a tough balance to strike, and based on some of the testimonials above, it seems Rockstar (like most studios) has some room to improve.
Read Dead Redemption 2 launches on Xbox One and PS4 on October 26.
