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Rockstar Lincoln, a UK-based studio that has been handling a lot of quality assurance testing for Red Dead Redemption 2, are swearing off an approach that they have interpreted as mandatory overtime.
This change is a result of a studio meeting at the end of a week full of unusually public discussion about the work hours of the big game budget of the last several years.
We first heard about it from a number of sources.
Rockstar management describes the situation differently to Kotaku, saying that it was not mandatory but that it was part of the process that was requested and scheduled by the bosses, but that Jenn Kolbe, told Jenn Kolbe, said, "The Jennincbe, told by the company's head of publishing Kotaku today. "We do not think that it is clear that the OT is not mandatory."
Over the last couple of weeks, we've heard many questions about how to train the world. Employees' stories co-founder Dan Houser about working 100-hour weeks at the studio. While Houser later clarified that he was talking about a three-week stint involving himself and other lead RDR2 writers, other current and train employees privately and publicly began writing their accounts, many of them saying they worked well beyond a 40-hour week.
The Rockstar Workers We Heard The Lincoln of the Crash. One source familiar with the studio said they'd been in various forms of crunch since October 2017, with requested weekend shifts. Many who have spoken to us privately have said they are working at Rockstar but are weary from the amount of work.
A post published to the Red Dead Redemption RockstarThrowaaway448 today's meeting about the game. While we have not been in touch with the person behind that post directly, a moderator for the subreddit told Kotaku that they've verified their identity. The post's author describes themselves as a 23-year-old man who has been working for the Lincoln studio for a year.
"We had a big meeting today where it was announced that all overtime going forward would be entirely optional, so we would like to work the extra hours and earn the extra money then we can do , but there is no longer a rule making us do it, "the Reddit poster wrote.
"This is a long time ago and it's a big step forward in making a crunch."
Data shared by Rockstar with Kotaku indicated at the studio had to be tested at Lincoln to work 52.5 hours a week between October 9th, 2017 and August 6th, 2018. This is a new website. five weekdays and to work one 7.5-hour weekend every four weekends. Night shift testers were asked to work 52.5.
Workload requests from Rockstar management increased to 57.5 hours per week in August and September of this year, according to Kolbe's data.
But, she noted, the company's data showed that it's less than that. From October to October of this year, Rockstar records had an average of 38.4 hours a week, and then up to 45.4 from mid-May to early August and up to 53.1 in August and September as Red Dead Redemption 2 was nearing completion.
The person who posted on Reddit said that they worked about 56 hours a week for most of the past year. They based this tally, in part, on counting their lunch breaks, which they could not work for.
While the overtime at Lincoln was paid, the purported insider posting to Reddit said, "This overtime is NOT optional, it is expected of us. If we are not able to work overtime we have some day without a good reason, you have to make it up on another day. This usually means that you'll want a full weekend that you will have a double weekend to make up for it. "
The removal of what has been described by workers as mandatory overtime seems to be extending beyond Lincoln.
Earlier today, a developer who says they are working at North Rockstar wrote on Twitter that their studio lead was trying to make things better: "they are trying. An example of things that happened in the past when HR called me in to know me
Hovering over a lot of the discussion about workloads at Rockstar and other studios is the difference between company and culture. As Kolbe noted, Rockstar employees said they felt that high numbers of people were expected. Kotaku sources have said that it is overtime that is now optional.
Some Rockstar employees have expressed their views about the new policy will play out. Two Kotaku sources said that they would still be able to work as long as possible.
One Redeemed Lincoln Worker, "Is it all worth it to be working on something and love passionate about?"
"We're all over you!" "Absolutely will be worth it in the end."
On Wednesday, Rockstar took a step back to allow their employees, to discuss their work. Many said on social media in large positive tones as they were working on 40 or 50 hours but not close to 100. One said they'd done multiple 70-hour weeks on GTA V but noted that the crunch Red Dead Redemption 2 was "better."
By encouraging their employees to be at the top of the table, the audience is in a state of the art, the audience is in the dark. .
It may also be a turning point in the games industry, media and fans discuss the amount of work that should not go into the game that millions of people love to play.
Additional reporting by Jason Schreier.
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