They report 12-hour days, including Saturdays, holiday and overtime sliced and barely any pay-rises. San Diego is on Red Dead Redemption.
An ‘open letter’ was blogged on Gamasutra under the pseudonym ‘Rockstar Spouse’. It tells of the appalling conditions staff are forced into, and how misleading bosses keep them working. There’s been ”physical manifestations” of stress, ”making health a concern.”
”There are understandably times when crunching in work is needed and extended working time is expected. However; as with all systems known to man, there must always be an effort for balance,” continued the letter.
”Ergo, where there are times of acceleration, there are other times of deceleration in order to recuperate. This is not being practiced though, and instead of valued employees, a sentiment grows that they have lost not only the sense of being valued but turned into machines as they are slowly robbed of their humanity.”
”The managers at Rockstar San Diego continue in their dishonesty, pushing their employees to the brink promising temporariness fully equipped with the knowledge of another deadline just around the corner.”
It’s a rather shocking indictment of developer lives at Rockstar Games, thought of as a premiere videogames studio the world over. This open letter also echoes the much publicised ‘ea_spouse’ from 2004, attacking EA over their treatment of devs.
Rockstar San Diego is currently developing Red Dead Redemption, which releases for Xbox 360 and PS3 April 27th in the US, and on the 30th in Europe.
