'We Are Humans Too' Rockstar Accused of Crunch Ahead of GTA 6 Release

Someone claiming to work for Rockstar has accused the Grand Theft Auto 6 developer of crunch as the game nears release. Attention on the company has heightened as the long-awaited release day finally approaches, and while there is a lot for fans to get excited about, not all the rumors about the title’s development have been positive. While it’s still unconfirmed for now, it’s possible it took some extreme hours to get Grand Theft Auto 6 across the finish line.

Rockstar and its parent company Take-Two have shared relatively little about the game over the past several months, but that’s about to change. Marketing efforts will ramp up soon, and as launch day gets closer, Take-Two’s CEO has said he’s terrified of how GTA 6 might live up to expectations after such a long wait. Now it sounds like he is not the only insider facing significant stress over making sure the game is ready when it arrives in players’ hands.

Former Rockstar Dev Explains Why GTA 6 May Have Taken So Long To Develop

An ex-Rockstar developer who worked on Grand Theft Auto 5 speculates on why the next installment in the series, GTA 6, has taken so long to develop.

Glassdoor User Claims Rockstar is Crunching on GTA 6

According to a May 1 Glassdoor review, the environment at Rockstar has shifted in recent weeks, with employees now being “expected to work overtime without pay.” While the anonymous review does not mention GTA 6 by name, the timing would make sense, given GTA 6 is slated for release later this year, so teams would face tight time constraints on any remaining work. The post claims some employees have had to work until 3 in the morning and that management is asking for five to six months’ worth of work to be completed in two to three months. Such claims bring to mind how some Red Dead Redemption 2 teams worked 100-hour weeks on multiple occasions to get that game done on time.

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However, fans should take these claims with a grain of salt. Glassdoor is anonymous and does not require users to verify their place of work to leave a review, so there is no way to tell if this user is actually a Rockstar employee. On the other hand, the review claims to be from a QA analyst in Bangalore, India, and Rockstar did hire QA testers at its Bangalore office earlier this year. The company has undergone crunch on previous games, too, but again, these details do not necessarily confirm anything. Other Glassdoor reviews from QA roles at the same location mention having a positive work-life balance, which may seem contradictory, but these are also earlier posts, and the crunch time in question has supposedly only been going on for the past month or so.

It’s likely that GTA 6 has been in development since 2018, and Rockstar has delayed the game twice, which would seem to give teams ample time to finish work while avoiding crunch. However, long dev cycles and crunch are not mutually exclusive. Plenty of AAA titles have suffered delays and still resulted in mandatory overtime for some employees, and given the expectations around GTA 6, there is likely a lot of pressure to ensure it’s as polished as possible before release. At the same time, just because it wouldn’t be surprising if Rockstar was crunching over GTA 6 doesn’t mean it is, but if this Glassdoor review is legitimate, it is a disappointing turn of events.

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While it may be uncertain if GTA 6 is going through it, crunch has become an unfortunate reality across the gaming industry. Reports of extreme working conditions regularly crop up, and the issue has gotten so common that Naughty Dog came to see crunch as inevitable after releasing the first The Last of Us game, and other studios could share similar beliefs. This most recent instance may not be verified for the time being, but it is easy to see how such a situation might arise.