Rockstar Games Has Been Criticized for Overworking Their Developers
Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser recently had to clarify a claim he made during an interview where he said that sometimes the developers for Red Dead Redemption 2 had to work “100-hour weeks”.
This claim caused a lot of controversy and much criticism was lodged towards Rockstar’s management for overworking their employees. However, in a statement sent to Kotaku on Monday, Houser said that such long work weeks only involved several senior staff members not entire studios.
Houser also told Kotaku that when he made the “100-hour weeks” claim, he was only talking about how Red Dead Redemption 2’s narrative development went and added that these “100-hour weeks” only spanned a time period of three weeks, not several years.
“After working on the game for seven years, the senior writing team, which consists of four people, Mike Unsworth, Rupert Humphries, Lazlow and myself, had, as we always do, three weeks of intense work when we wrapped everything up,” Houser said. “Three weeks, not years. We have all worked together for at least 12 years now, and feel we need this to get everything finished. After so many years of getting things organized and ready on this project, we needed this to check and finalize everything.”
According to Houser, working these long hours is a choice, not something that Rockstar’s management orders its employees to do. “No one, senior or junior, is ever forced to work hard,” he said. “I believe we go to great lengths to run a business that cares about its people, and to make the company a great place for them to work.”
This isn’t the first time that Rockstar Games has been criticized for having their employees work long hours. Back in 2010, several wives of Rockstar San Diego developers anonymously spoke out against the working conditions of that studio during the development of Red Dead Redemption.