Rockstar Lincoln reveal they crunched for ONE YEAR making Red Dead 2.

[Ice_cold2016]

Last week it was revealed that Rockstar games was pushing its employees to work hour weeks to make  Red Dead 2. Dan Houser came out and said it was just him and 2 others who worked 100 hour weeks for 3 weeks to finish the story to Red Dead 2 and that Rockstar's employees were not crunched and that overtime was optional. This surrounded rumours Rockstar employees were worked so hard it caused mental breakdowns and burnout among employees. Dan Houser then lifted a social media ban allowing Rockstar employees to take to social media to tell the world how working conditions are. Some came out and said it was good and ok. Obviously they would say that wouldn't they. Dan Houser would have dropped are large bag of cash on their laps to make the problem go away or they are current employees who fear for their job or want to arse kiss the company to make themselves look good and maybe get a raise etc.

 

But now employees at Rockstar Lincoln in the UK has just came out and revealed that they were expected to work long hours and that they crunched on Red Dead 2 for a whole year. Dan Houser said overtime was optional. But Rockstar Lincoln claim if you didn't work overtime on a certain day without good reason you were then expected to work overtime another day. This means that if you wanted a weekend off you would have to work a double weekend to make up for it. Rockstar Lincoln also reveal that employees were worked through lunch and inner breaks but never get paid for it. So a standard day is 7.5 hours, paid 8.5 hours, with overtime day being 10 hours, paid 11.5 hours actual. 

 

Employees reveal that they have to "opt in" to different amounts of overtime depending on whether the studio is in standard crunch hours (three weekday overtime shifts per week and 2 weekend overtime shifts per month)  or if they were in true crunch hours (5 weekday overtime shifts and 4 weekend overtime shifts per month) They said the studio had been in crunch on Red Dead 2 since October 9 2017. 

 

Other employees from different Rockstar studios say that the requested overtime felt obligational for them. They say its optional but Rockstar make you feel bad if you don't do it or get you out the door. So some employees do it through fear of losing their job.  That whole if you don't do the overtime Rockstar will get you out the door. I very much believe that as look at what happened to Lezlie Benzies. They got him to take a years paid leave and then changed the locks and wouldn't let him back in when he came back to work a year later. 

Edited October 27, 2018 by Ice_cold2016

[Hmmm nice bike]

Of course that whole thing of Rockstar trying to say their employees weren't forced to crunch wasn't entirely true. It's just an attempt at getting good PR. Obviously nobody who still works for them is going to talk sh*t about what it's actually like to work there. Going by the reviews by former employees at Glassdoor as well as what a few former employees had to say in the book "Jacked" by David Kushner, it's not a fun place to work. Two employees committed suicide in 2007, and they brought in a "spiritual healer" who rubbed a string of crystals around office equipment to rid the place of "bad vibes." Nice to know that their office decided it was a good idea to bring in someone to handle an exorcism first before bringing in counselors like any other place that isn't run by insane people would do.

[universetwisters]

This literally isn't news.

 

Apparently every AAA title made past 2008 or whatever was built on the blood, sweat, & tears of the developers.

[just do it bob1]

On 10/29/2018 at 12:27 AM, universetwisters said:

This literally isn't news.

 

Apparently every AAA title made past 2008 or whatever was built on the blood, sweat, & tears of the developers.

and yet the community still tries to nitpick every piss @ss thing they can find wrong with the game. 

[universetwisters]

3 minutes ago, just do it bob1 said:

and yet the community still tries to nitpick every piss @ss thing they can find wrong with the game. 

Dude you're one to talk replying to a 2 month old comment lmfao