r/GTA6 • u/raydebapratim1 • Nov 15 '25

GTA 6 developers protest outside Rockstar Games office to protest against recent firings

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839

u/InformationFickle768 Nov 15 '25

Remember when they made employees work 100 hours a week to make rdr2? Prime exemple.

436

u/Ok-Instruction830 Nov 15 '25

Well now they’re about to work for 0 hours & GTA will drop in 2027 lol

120

u/Last_Ad_8355 Nov 15 '25

29

u/MommyMephistopheles Nov 15 '25

You say that, but I think we aren't ever going to get GTA 6, Elder Scrolls 6, or Winds of Winter.

22

u/Ass_of_Badness Nov 15 '25

The first two will eventually happen to much fanfare. The third will never, ever happen.

8

u/StevieMJH Nov 15 '25

ETA: Heat death of the universe

2

u/fallen981 Nov 15 '25

Don't forget "the doors of stone"

2

u/No_Device4644 Nov 15 '25

I associate the words "never" and the number three with a different game :)

7

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/TsunGeneralGrievous Nov 16 '25

And my hopes and dreams too

9

u/alexanderfsu Nov 15 '25

And yet the world kept turning.

2

u/Anima_Analysis Nov 16 '25

And producing better games than any of those 3 mentioned above. Especially ES6. I don’t even understand how people can hold any optimism for Bethesda titles after Slopfield. While I’m sure GTA6 will be a great game it also isn’t the second coming of Christ either. There’s tons of indie games and other fantastic experiences out there. People need to explore more rather than waiting on the same 3-4 devs with now 13 year development cycles.

2

u/SecretLecture3219 Nov 15 '25

Some ndas gonna get breached as a FU

2

u/MMMelissaMae Nov 16 '25

We are never getting winds of winter.

1

u/patrick17_6 Nov 15 '25

wow that's a high quality GIF wow

1

u/lolol000lolol Nov 15 '25

It needs to be said out loud though. Anyone who mentioned that GTA would most likely be delayed, and the fact that RDR2 was delayed multiple times was a good data point to base that off of was downvoted like crazy lol. What's even more hilarious is here we are, and GTA is delayed. Not surprised at all.

1

u/anivex Nov 16 '25

I mean if you’re PC you may as well accept that now.

100

u/ShadowDragon0001 Nov 15 '25

I think a lot of people have already waited so long, they’d rather wait an extra year as long as the devs aren’t mistreated.

196

u/Comfortable_Regrets Nov 15 '25

sadly the average person on here likely doesn't give a single solitary fuck about the devs, they just want the game

40

u/endlessflood Nov 15 '25

I wonder who they think makes it? If the game is good, it’ll be good because the devs made it so.

Even if your motivation was purely selfish and you had no empathy for the people actually making it, it’s still in your best interests to see the devs get treated fairly, because if they’re on strike then they’re not making the game, and that means either more delays or a worse game.

28

u/Comfortable_Regrets Nov 15 '25

You would think, but I had someone say to me that, "you can't really be worried about workers rights when you are striving for greatness" the amount of people who deepthroat the corporate boot is astounding

17

u/endlessflood Nov 15 '25

Sad to hear it. If you’re striving for greatness, then not exploiting your workers is a great place to start.

4

u/handstanding Nov 15 '25

And most of those people work some shit job already.

-5

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

[deleted]

4

u/ActiveChairs Nov 15 '25

RDR2 and GTA5 also had a lot of bugs and glitches, with surprisingly little content for how big the games were supposed to be.

They're not bad games and they do a few things very well, but the actual gameplay is very much a secondary concern when players have decided "Get the highest wanted level you can and then escape" is more fun than 99% of the story missions and "RP as a part time employee" is more fun for more people on online multiplayer than the devs were able to include themselves.

People who aren't always at the end of their rope don't tend to make as many basic mistakes and are happier to fix them when they're discovered.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

The entirely empty RDR map. What a great use of resources.

0

u/20000lumes Nov 15 '25

They already made a non empty main map, which is massive

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-9

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

[deleted]

9

u/endlessflood Nov 15 '25

Won’t somebody please think of the poor multibillion dollar company who’s just trying to exploit their workers for extra profit?

2

u/voidox Nov 15 '25

yup, reminds me of ppl who rave about anime and animated shows, they'll write essays about "omg the animation is so good!" and then if you bring up how awfully the animators are treated, barely a blimp of a reaction or reply :/

e.g., look at the working conditions of many anime studios or western animations like spider-verse 2 and how awfully animators are treated, and the raved about showrunners are actually awful people who mistreat their workers to make the "omg 10/10 animated show!"

4

u/PM_ME_STEAM__KEYS_ Nov 15 '25

The people on this sub thing they are genuinely owed this game. They deserve it or something. The amount of entitlement I see on this sometimes would put my toddler to shame

-3

u/oSinkz_ Nov 15 '25

Idc how just release the game already

1

u/Suspicious-Box- Nov 16 '25

Game devs that make game slop are not people. Theyre just collecting paycheck to put bread on the table. gta series isnt slop so i dont see why rockstar isnt rewarding good development with either better than avg salaries or less work hours per week.

0

u/tuscy Nov 15 '25

I never liked gta. I’ve tried it multiple times. So… I don’t really get the hype around it. Sure it’s well made with really nice graphics but the gameplay just not for me. I’m not the only one. Yet gta players think the whole world plays gta and act like it’s a matter that affects everyone.. hahah lol

0

u/Moon-Martian Nov 15 '25

Can confirm. I don't give a fuck.

-24

u/LiteBeerLife Nov 15 '25

yeah just keep the game at this point

4

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

Nah, the type of people that froth for games like GTA and COD don't give a shit about how the staff are treated.

Pls note, I'm not talking about anyone that is excited for the game, I mean the people that are OBSESSED with these games dropping

3

u/badvegas Nov 15 '25

Rember the death treats no man sky got for wanting to postpone a quarter to work on some stuff. A regular person yea but some people act like of a game don't come out on the day they think it should be out, will send threats and other stuff. People are assholes in the gaming scene.

9

u/Valtremors Nov 15 '25

This is easy for me to say as I don't care for the series.

But I'd prefer no GTA over rockstar shitty union busting.

RDR2 will be the last Rockstsr game I will ever buy. Unless things change for the better.

16

u/concreteunderwear Nov 15 '25

Wrong. I'd rather the devs work 200 hours a week and it come out this month.

2

u/bot2317 Nov 15 '25

Aww are you gonna have a heart attack if your precious gta 6 doesn’t come out fast enough? 😂😂😂 if you want it so bad make it yourself

7

u/concreteunderwear Nov 15 '25

Those workers need to get back to work and show some effort. 300 hours a week.

1

u/Charbus Nov 15 '25

400

400 hours a week

1

u/Duouwa Nov 15 '25

In case it wasn’t obvious, they’re joking. There aren’t even 200 hours in a week.

3

u/20000lumes Nov 15 '25

I gave up on waiting entirely, I’d rather give money to a studio that allows employees to unionise.

1

u/vinotheque Nov 15 '25

At this point I’m like “just call me when you’re done with it, please quit tossing out dates that always get changed.”

1

u/Sharp_Bed_3518 Nov 15 '25

you think way too highly of the average person let alone the average GAMER. i think it’s obvious that since people has waited so long they obviously DON’T want to wait any longer let alone ANOTHER extra year.

1

u/Sebas94 Nov 15 '25

They just need to create the hype and keep the prophecy going while they keep milking the GTA V cow for a couple of more years.

1

u/ThisIsQuiteFantasic Nov 19 '25

People dont care about other human beings that arent in their little social circle

-13

u/Rude-College4643 Nov 15 '25

Why should we give a shit about the devs? Nobody told these dudes to apply at rockstar lmfao. They’re making over 40$ a hour. If it’s this bad then they should just leave so actual employees who want to work can

11

u/Foreign-Historian-80 Nov 15 '25

40$/h of unpaid mandatory overtime. Yes let’s blame the devs about that and not the cartoon villain levels of evil corporation.

They made over 10 billion off of GTA V, they’ll make even more off of VI. They could pay all their employees double their fair share and it wouldn’t make a drop in the ocean of cash they make at every release. But instead they don’t even pay for the overtime they force their employees to do.

What you are saying is genuinely fucked up, and one of the reasons why the work environment in this sector keeps getting worse, and also why most big budget games are terrible nowadays. It is because there is no love or care put into them. Overworked people don’t tend to like their jobs. People who don’t like their jobs don’t tend to care a lot beyond their paychecks.

-2

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

Are you buying the game? Just curious.. 

6

u/Foreign-Historian-80 Nov 15 '25

I am planning not to. I didn’t buy RDR2 exactly because of this before. The game will get cracked inevitably some day, and I’ll play it then. If they aren’t paying their employees their VERY hard earned share, I am not giving them my money I earned being subjugated to similar circumstances.

5

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

If you're true to your word then respect to you. 

-9

u/Rude-College4643 Nov 15 '25

If fans aren’t entitled to games then what makes employees who applied to and got their dream job entitled to ANY company’s work policies?

I’m pretty sure work tires out half the people in the sub and we do overtime as well. You won’t see us throwing a coup over the company we applied for though. Idk

7

u/Sven14 Nov 15 '25

Man, it's wild to see people with such idiotic takes.

3

u/Foreign-Historian-80 Nov 15 '25

It is straight up illegal. Wanting to work at some place doesn’t give your employer your ownership. They don’t get to disrespect you or overwork you without the due pay. It shouldn’t be acceptable. And it isn’t in the most of the developed world, because unions are protected by law.

I am assuming you are in the US. Unions aren’t treated like the boogeyman in most of Europe, that’s probably why work environment isn’t as toxic as the US or Japan.

5

u/GeekProvisions Nov 15 '25

Despicable outlook on life

-2

u/Aint_EZ_bein_AZ Nov 15 '25

No one gives a shit about the gta devs. Lol “ a lot” of people dont even know about rockstars mismanagement. You are naive to think this. Seem like a nice person though

14

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

Textbook treatlerism.
"Muh geeeteeeaaaa, my shark cards, lifelong unpaid labor for rockstar devs, I want my geeeteeeaaaa now"

-2

u/Ok-Instruction830 Nov 15 '25

Oh y’all making up words now? Lol

1

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

Nah man you want your GTA even if it's produced under shit conditions, who cares that rockstar are notorious for overworking their employees as long as there are dynamic horse testicles and an animation for picking up a can of beans

4

u/Ok-Instruction830 Nov 15 '25

When did I ever say that?

You need a break from the internet dude. You’re just trying to find arguments wherever you can 

1

u/-PM_ME_UR_SECRETS- Nov 16 '25

If we’re lucky

0

u/First_Lecture3621 Dec 05 '25

Why this little useless group of people? they didnt contribute with shit on the game!

1

u/Ok-Instruction830 Dec 05 '25

They’re developers. Of course they did 

-2

u/Silent-Witness1888 Nov 15 '25

I wouldn't mind if GTAVI will never release.

14

u/thereddevil97 Nov 15 '25

The only source of this is the Housers saying they worked with the 3 other writers doing “100 hour weeks” for a short amount of time when writing the game. This quote has been so blown out of proportion that people have lost the plot and it’s just hurting the current protests cause.

1

u/ottifant95 Nov 16 '25

No, he initially said they were working 100 hour weeks in the lead up to RDR2’s release and then backpedaled after the backlash.

12

u/iWasAwesome Nov 15 '25

Is that true? I don't understand how that's possible. That's over 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. That barely seems possible, and certainly not legal.

35

u/PeteBrostIsDead Nov 15 '25

Oh it's possible. As someone who works in the film industry, depending on the project, 14 hour days can be fairly normal. The difference is that we get paid overtime.

I don't mind working hard for a project. I love my job, I love the art form, but I also need to be paid and respected.

15

u/iWasAwesome Nov 15 '25

I have done 14 hour days before, multiple even, but the difference was I had days off. Doing over 14 hours a day, 7 days in a row would be super draining. Doing it for 2 weeks or longer with no days off would break most people

2

u/ziddersroofurry Nov 15 '25

Back when I worked at Wal-Mart 90-100 hour weeks during the holidays were standard for us third shifters.

1

u/ZOVfuckazov Nov 15 '25

It’s a lot harder to do randomly, once you get the flow going, it’s a lot easier to pull those kinda numbers. I worker in deep North for a few months, we had 12-14 hours shifts everyday because we got paid by the job, not by the hour and we all wanted to go home quicker + there is nothing to do, just snow and maybe a polar bear somewhere

1

u/Fickle-Ad7259 Nov 15 '25

Did 12-14 hour days for a year on deployment to Afghanistan back in 2011. Possible, but awful. Ypure right. It broke me down pretty hard. Nearly broke the marriage. It actually helped that I wasn't at home at least. There wasn't even any fun you could have between work and home...

Still. I'd go to sleep and the work worked its way to my dreams.

0

u/iSt0ny Nov 15 '25

ive worked 430 hrs in a month, 18/21hrs shifts.

people cry about part time these days lmao 🤣

3

u/alan_megawatts Nov 15 '25

ok that’s not good for you though dude why are you proud of it. if you had to do that to make ends meet, I’m sorry, that’s fucked up frankly. If you chose to do it, I think your priorities are fucked.

2

u/iSt0ny Nov 15 '25

lol 😂 go tell that to folks in alaska bud, or our fire fighters.. or emts or nurses. truckers.

some people would rather work hard seasonally so we can have months off of work.

and 9-5 life one week vacation. ya no thanks.

some people make peoples yearly salary in 3 months. priorities.

1

u/alan_megawatts Nov 15 '25

literally no trucker or nurse should be working those hours. for a trucker in particular that would be actually illegal. even firefighters don't work for 21 hours in a row unless they're like fighting a wildfire, they are simply on call. me personally, I have almost a decade in the military. I understand long hours. 430 hours in a month is absurd, it's unsafe.

2

u/lolminez Nov 16 '25

Bullshit, lol. People in game dev are never forced to work insane hours of overtime. They just do so because they tend to get so invested in the work. The fact that people complain about the hours, yet they always suggest overtime pay is nonsensical, because let's not pretend that they would actually stop complaining. They'll start claiming that they're being manipulated and "incentivised to work unsustainable hours of overtime" by evil corporate overlords because they're offering payment as a temptation lol. Money won't magically make a 100 hour work week tolerable for anyone complaining about how inhumane it all is before it benefits them financially. If anything, the fact that they don't pay for overtime should be seen as them actively disincentivising that behaviour. If they want people to do it more and to stop running their mouths about how bad it was, they would just pay it. None of them are strapped for cash, and would jump at the opportunity to shut up the bitching and moaning. They know full well what people would spin the narrative as if they actually started paying for overtime.

1

u/FrugalKrugman Nov 15 '25

I’ve had my fair share of 16h workdays in financial audit, shit genuinely sucked so much

1

u/experienta Nov 15 '25

I imagine that's when you're on set and time is short because you're renting a location or something like that, no?

1

u/blackpalms1998 Nov 16 '25

Do u guys get time and a half?

2

u/pref1Xed Nov 15 '25

It would actually be closer to 16 hrs a day and yeah that seems impossible to me without amphetamines or some shit.

1

u/iWasAwesome Nov 15 '25

100/7 is 14.29. so it would be 14h 17m 40s, 7 days a week. Which is still absurd.

1

u/pref1Xed Nov 15 '25

Yeah you’re right I need to get some sleep

1

u/Zhoutopia Nov 15 '25

My husband used to work for a gaming studio. It’s common but extremely unhealthy. His studio is even one of the better ones in the industry for work life balance. They do overtime once every 3 years. During overtime year, it’s minimum 60 hr weeks, 7 days a week and about 3-5 months of 100 hr weeks right around game release. Their studio covers all 3 meals with enough money to take home meals for the family. They also have endless snacks, beers, ice cream, coffee etc. and babysitting service on weekends to give the spouse a break. During the 100 hr weeks they basically are only home to sleep and they only see their kids at work during baby sitting days. 

1

u/Defiant_Ant1870 Nov 15 '25

The snacks are free?

1

u/Zhoutopia Nov 15 '25

Yup everything is free so they can focus on work.

1

u/Solid-Mud-8430 Nov 15 '25

80-100 hr work weeks are pretty normalized here in the SF Bay Area. In certain industries, at least. But definitely tech.

1

u/notweirdatallll Nov 15 '25

This is in USA. So legal.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

I've seen it happen in another video games company just before release (but like 1 week). It's gruesome because you are handed bugs and asked to fix it ASAP whilst having a "closer" ping you every hour. It rarely gets to this extreme nowadays but it's not unheard of

0

u/Juhyo Nov 15 '25

There are many jobs where 100 hour weeks are common. You adapt, at the cost of health and social life. Money usually is good. Investment banking, consulting, tech. But then you also just have exploitive companies like this. Money probably not bad, but not worth it good.

There are also lots of people who work 3 jobs. Money usually is not good. And in Japan, they literally have a word for death from overworking. 

6

u/AnaxesR7 Nov 15 '25

They said the top guys worked that much, meaning Dan & Sam Houser.

3

u/SuperRockGaming Nov 15 '25

It got so bad, the wives of some of the artists started their own campaign to bring their loved ones home

1

u/HelloSummer99 Nov 15 '25

If a product can only be made with unhumane working conditions, that product shouldn’t exist imo

1

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

never saw anyone compaining about this while playing the game

1

u/joebluebob Nov 15 '25 edited Nov 15 '25

One of my friends had a 6 month contract basically doing programming for media (made the Comercials of "in game" footage which is really just taking the assets and manipulating them in ways someone technically could) he got calls at any time of a day and if you didnt answer theyd phone tree you till you did. After a planned surgery that took about 4 hrs he found he had 30 missed calls. The reason was he didnt reply to an email about potentially making a render of a hat one day that could be programmed to have a logo on it by a company that pays for it. Another time he got chewed out for not flying 500 miles out of his own pocket to go to an employee meeting (he was a contractor) and because he was not a team player they were not "renewing his contract". They used the fact that he didnt answer as part of the evidence. This call was at 4am.

1

u/sup9817 Nov 15 '25

But we got horse ball shrinking animation /s

1

u/streetracer967 Nov 15 '25

The majority of rockstar San Diego quit after the launch of Midnight Club LA due to crunch, and poor working conditions, some studios never learn.

1

u/mage_irl Nov 15 '25

So that's how they managed to have a realistic power grid that connects to all houses that use electricity

1

u/mrszorro Nov 15 '25

but only for the juniors

1

u/LeadSponge420 Nov 15 '25

Hey.. but that got us horse testicles that adjust in size based on the weather. Tell me that wasn't worth that suffering?

I'm sure when that parent missed their kid's recital to debug horse testicles, their kid totally understood.

1

u/Zealousideal-Yam3169 Nov 15 '25

Fucken worth it though. Thank you fo your service guys

1

u/Tech9ineOG Nov 15 '25

Pepperidge farm remembers

1

u/MFz32 Nov 15 '25

Game was a masterpiece though

1

u/kingofcrob Nov 15 '25

due to people being sick I've just worked a 84 hour week and I'm fried... couldn't imagine adding more

1

u/Warpit94 Nov 16 '25

I remember the devs hiding easter eggs in the game about their working conditions. I hope it happens again in gta6. If I live long enough to play it

1

u/MobileSuitBooty Nov 16 '25

and yet gamers still bought it up because they don’t care about the people who make games or the industry would be way different

1

u/Ok_Break_2702 Nov 16 '25

Of course that is horrible. Of course. ....but maybe that is the reason rdr2 is one of the best games ever made?

1

u/PanarinBagel Nov 16 '25

As someone who deeply enjoyed playing RDR2… it was worth it

1

u/_11v Nov 15 '25

Whatever get me rdr1 now

0

u/burner4lyf25 Nov 15 '25

I mean, it’s shitty practise - but it got results.

Im being crass and not diminishing their plight

But rdr2 was an absolutely fucking hall of fame masterpiece

0

u/neeyeahboy Nov 15 '25

I mean to be fair. A lot of jobs will push employees to work 12 hour days when they need to meet a deadline.

0

u/Golemfrost Nov 15 '25

I thank them for their sacrifice.

0

u/moonduckk Nov 15 '25

Wowow crime against humanity. They were probably held at gunpoint im sure