All Rockstar Games ever have been pushed back by months or years. They have all had monolithic levels of crunch. People not working in the office is definitely not to blame. Particularly if they were hired as offside, which the article claims.
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024
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I fail to feel any sympathy for higher ups in any company these days especially video games. “You are already working 80 hour weeks please do more so I can make more money”
Yeah, but I have to feel sympathy for the devs here. Definitely need a game Dev Union strike like the writers strike did, I think. Though that's difficult to pull off.
Speaking as someone who's worked inside a couple "AAA" studios, sympathy to a union has definitely increased in the past decade. It's no coincidence that bonuses and profit sharing (a major part of compensation) have plummeted over that same time. As much as fans hate unambitious and venal design choices in recent games I assure them that devs hate them just as much or even more, since they ruin years of work. We have steadily decreasing feedback into these choices and are expected more and more to stick to our corner pushing pixels and writing code. Morale is probably the lowest I've ever experienced and mandatory RTO adds insult to injury.
The various QA Union success stories have lots of support on the dev side. However many people believe it's impossible somehow, or that they personally would get laid off or have their job outsourced if there is even a hint of organizing. Especially the past 12 months, the bloodbath has workers terrified. Everyone is trying to keep their heads down as much as possible. I unfortunately don't see this ending well unless funding loosens up and people can start small studios again. There was a wave of this during Covid but those studios are all dying now. It's seriously depressing. I'm a refugee from the VFX world and I feel like I'm watching the sequel.
Ah, yes, love the productivity boost of being in a voice call, but now with all my colleagues quacking in the background.