Rockstar employees talk about working conditions via social media – Variety



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Since Rockstar Games founder Dan Houser said the studio was working 100 weeks a week to complete "Red Dead Redemption 2", he caused a public outcry earlier this week, causing a public outcry over the terms of the deal. work in the video game industry. social media.

In an interview published Sunday, Houser said that 100-hour work weeks had occurred several times in the last year, but then sent a clarification to Variety that this comment only applied to four people, including Houser, the lead editors of "Red Dead Redemption 2". Houser also said that "we obviously do not expect others to work this way."

While former Rockstar employees had already commented on this article about working conditions related to the release of "Red Dead Redemption" and other successful titles like "Grand Theft Auto IV" and "Grand Theft Auto V ", we now hear about current Rockstar employees. It seems that Rockstar Games may have relaxed its social media policy, since one of Rockstar North's current programmers, Timea Tabori, said employees "were allowed to talk openly about our experiences" in a tweet.

"In more than 5 years, I have never been asked or forced to work for nearly 100 hours. I have sometimes worked up to 50 hours a week and no one has asked or even expected, "wrote Tabori in a statement. follow-up tweet.

Wesley Mackinder, a current employee of Rockstar North, said he felt relieved that his company would not make him suffer the harsh working conditions described by some.

"It was surreal to see people sharing their cruel stories with the following conclusion:" Rockstar has to change, "said Mackinder. tweeted. "When I read them, I said to myself," I'm so happy to work at Rockstar and to have done nothing that they have "."

Vivianne Langdon, tool programmer at Rockstar San Diego, prefaced a series of tweets with the note that she worked for Rockstar for three and a half years and that "[Rockstar] allowed us to speak frankly about this issue on social media. I want to emphasize that this is my unbound personal opinion. I am in no way paid for this position and I do it voluntarily. I am only going to talk about my personal experience. "

On his experience working with Rockstar, Langdon tweeted that she has never worked more than 50 hours a week, and that even working 50 hours a week is "a rare event". Langdon said she usually worked between two and six paid overtime per week.

Guillermo Diaz, game designer at Rockstar North, tweeted that while longer work hours are a possibility, they are not mandatory and that there are many people who 'have not worked an extra hour "and even received promotions. Notably, however, Diaz himself reported working more than 75 hours in some weeks.

"I have worked so many hours to do [“Red Dead Redemption 2″] possible for several months (more than 75 hours a few weeks), tweeted. "And that's always part of my desire to be perfect. We have been encouraged to make more efforts to meet deadlines, but I do not feel obliged to [Rockstar Games] to do it."

Former employees, like Job Stauffer, paint a different picture of Rockstar developer life, at least in recent years.

"It's been almost ten years since I left Rockstar, but I can assure you that during the era of GTA IV, it was like working with a weapon to the head seven days a week", Stauffer tweeted. "Be here on Saturday and Sunday too, just in case Sam or Dan come in, they want to see everyone working as hard as them."

Do you have any stories you would like to share about your work at Rockstar or other studios in harsh conditions or other working conditions? E-mail Variety game at [email protected]

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