Rockstar Games
Rockstar might have fixed one of the long-standing issues in the GTA series: “It’s like night and day”
This improvement is not in the game itself, but in its development.
Labor crunch in the video game industry remains a common issue, even among large studios. Working overtime to meet goals or deadlines has unfortunately become the norm. More and more developers have begun to speak out about the conditions they face, including grueling workdays that sacrifice weekends and family time, and even their health, often without additional compensation.
Rockstar Games is among the studios that have employed this practice. Despite their lengthy development periods, their teams have experienced these practices. In 2018, journalist Jason Schreier revealed that some employees worked up to 80 hours per week during the production of Red Dead Redemption 2. However, the situation seems to have improved significantly for Grand Theft Auto VI.
The labor situation during the development of GTA 6 is better than that of Red Dead Redemption 2.
According to a recent post on BlueSky, Jason Schreier commented that he has followed up on the working conditions at Rockstar Games during development. The people he interviewed said that the situation is now like “night and day,” suggesting a change in the labor structure.
Skepticism is always healthy, but I've been keeping tabs on this for years (since my big 2018 story about Red Dead 2's crunch). They certainly haven't eliminated *all* overtime but everyone I've talked to at Rockstar says it's night and day from previous projects. If that changes, I'll report on it.
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier.bsky.social) May 2, 2025 at 9:33 AM
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“I’ve been keeping tabs on this for years (since my big 2018 story about Red Dead 2’s crunch),” the journalist wrote. “They certainly haven’t eliminated all overtime but everyone I’ve talked to at Rockstar says it’s night and day from previous projects. If that changes, I’ll report on it. [sic]“.
The launch of the highly anticipated game is still a year away. Grand Theft Auto VI will be available on May 26, 2026 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. There are currently no plans to release the game on PC, so it will be exclusive to these two consoles.
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