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submitted 6 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

‘Grand Theft Auto’ Maker Rockstar Games Asks Workers to Return to Office Five Days a Week::Rockstar Games, a division of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., will ask employees to return to the office five days a week beginning in April as the video-game maker enters the final stages of development on its next game, the hotly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI.

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[-] st3ph3n@midwest.social 213 points 6 months ago

Stealth layoffs strike again.

[-] lemmyingly@lemm.ee 13 points 6 months ago

Does anyone keep a list of words/phrases used in the world and what they actually mean?

[-] Coreidan@lemmy.world 89 points 6 months ago

Yup it’s called the dictionary

[-] lemmyingly@lemm.ee 9 points 6 months ago
[-] darkevilmac@lemmy.zip 189 points 6 months ago

"please come to the office so you can experience the time crunch without the comfort of your own home"

[-] Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works 159 points 6 months ago

Please quit so we don’t get into the news for firing a lot of you.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 6 points 6 months ago

Dead Sea Effect

[-] SupraMario@lemmy.world 116 points 6 months ago

How to lose top talent in one easy step. I'm hoping smaller startups are taking notes and hiring these guys for remote work.

[-] dustyData@lemmy.world 23 points 6 months ago

Oh baby, they don't see it as losing talent, they want this people to resign so they don't have to use the word layoff.

[-] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago

When you layoff you have the option to lay off what you perceive as your least valuable talent. When you make the workplace less desirable you lose your best talent.

[-] dustyData@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

But the ones who stay are the ones most likely to tolerate your bullshit and obey without questioning. Which talent do you think management values the most?

[-] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago

Ultimately they value money. Losing good talent doesn't hurt short term in the short term you are selling the work of the people you just got rid of. It will become apparent when you start falling behind on projections or at worst when you make less money on your next round of games so watch TTWO in 3-5 years

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[-] EnderMB@lemmy.world 16 points 6 months ago

IMO, this is where many of the top tech companies will struggle.

I work at a big tech company, and we've been bleeding talent over the last 18 months. Many senior and principal engineers have left to do their own thing, usually working on their own thing or for a startup. Many of those that were laid off have probably done the same, where there are opportunities. In the next few years, we'll see new tech take over, and many big companies becoming poorly-run dinosaurs - basically becoming the IBM's of the world...

[-] Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz 3 points 6 months ago

Good.

My employer decided to embrace WFH from the top down. They are not renewing leases for sales spaces (easiest since they are not tied to labs) and are slowly crunching down to only what need to be in person - R&D and the guys that go out in the field. They do need large warehouse space for multiple 18 wheeler trucks and all the equipment.

Right now we do the stupid hybrid thing, but I just accept it because it’s one day a week and my boss^2 buys us all lunch. He is a really smart Boomer that is lonely and also helps us solve a lot of engineering issues so it is what it is.

[-] Nudding@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago

They haven't had any talent in about a decade.

[-] TheFriar@lemm.ee 11 points 6 months ago

Yeah rdr2 was sooooo bad, right?

[-] Nudding@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

The open world was enjoyable. The story and gameplay were tedious and boring.

[-] TheFriar@lemm.ee 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

lol what. The storytelling was amazing. If anything, yeah there are some problems with the mission mechanics, but the character story of Arthur and his overcoming his near-lifelong grooming to be a killer when he’s actually a good man, his struggle between his loyalty to helping others while being a contradiction of a man as he robs and kills, his past chasing him down no matter how far he runs a metaphor for he, himself, running from who he is—whether that is a good man or a bad man—and having his transgression ultimately kill him while he sacrifices himself for a brother and his chosen family, even though it’s all in vain and ultimately not enough because he was dying as is, the weight of his sins dragging him to an early death?

Not to mention the overarching theme of statism, anarchism, freedom. The Pinkertons an excellent chosen villain, the arm of the wealthy while these outlaws try to make a free life for themselves, so-called civilization killing the world around them while they are the ones treated as if they’re crazy? Dutch revealing himself over time to not be a freedom fighter but another greedy piece of shit who used the people around him as cannon fodder for his own ends? Trying to string the gang along as long as possible? His actions speaking louder than his words but he had somehow gotten them all to ignore his actions—and their own—in favor of the lies coming out of his mouth? Or were they lies at all? Were they his true beliefs and he was just led astray as he got older and let the power go to his head? Power corrupting.

The missions are too rigid, the motivation for the each being a little repetitive, but you really can’t knock the storytelling.

[-] Nudding@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

I'm glad you enjoyed it so much. I thought it was boring, rigid, repetitive and unengaging.

[-] Wolf_359@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Did you beat the game?

I agree with this guy that it may be the best Western ever written.

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[-] dumpsterlid@lemmy.world 115 points 6 months ago

So Rockstar workers are being asked to take a major pay cut, significant decrease in quality of life, massively increased chance of death (driving is the most dangerous thing we do by far), and a huge chunk of free time removed from every work day from commuting that could be time spent with family or loved ones….

[-] thallamabond@lemmy.world 59 points 6 months ago

People with families cost more, they always want time off to do 'stuff'. Truly dedicated employees forgo families, time off for 'stuff'. The best employees will spend a good portion of their money just to come back to the office, just because it's demanded.

Signed, Management

[-] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 79 points 6 months ago

I hope this really motivates workers at Rockstar to organize.

[-] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml 73 points 6 months ago

The whole tech industry especially games has needed to unionize for ages now

[-] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 3 points 6 months ago
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[-] synapse1278@lemmy.world 75 points 6 months ago

They still get 2 days of home office then! /s

[-] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 36 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

"Rockstar Games announces more delays to launch of GTA6"

[-] Zink@programming.dev 29 points 6 months ago

I am one of those oddities that prefers working in the office. I would much rather be at home, of course, but I have the right combination of adhd and fatigue that means I can’t be productive at home.

Plus I am fortunate to live a 5-minute drive away from my office.

But shit, even I don’t want to be expected to be in the office every single day! And that’s working for a reasonable company and not some crunch mode dev house.

[-] Snapz@lemmy.world 15 points 6 months ago

Maybe shut up for the greater good? They'll never stop you from coming in if you want to, but now is the time to solidify the right for people who don't want to go in.

[-] Zink@programming.dev 14 points 6 months ago

You don’t want me to share my thoughts on the subject with you guys? The whole point is that I fully support remote and flexible work even though I know from experience that it is not for me. I don’t WANT it to be that way, but I have to work with the brain I’m given.

I’m sure as hell not telling my management what I am telling Lemmy.

[-] locuester@lemmy.zip 6 points 6 months ago

Hey Zink, it’s your boss. Can you stop in at HR on Monday to discuss?

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[-] billwashere@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago

I also have ADHD and those little 5 minute pop-ins that happen at the office are productivity killers. It usually takes me 15 min to get back on task and in the zone so 3 of those an hour and the hour is shot. I can get more done in one day at home than 3 in the office.

[-] Stromatose@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

I too have ADHD and my in office days are so full of interruptions I just don't plan productive work during that time anymore and instead just book them full of pointless meetings.

Working at home I get interrupted exactly once a day by my girlfriend while she plays with our cat on her lunch break since she had a permanent work from home position even before covid.

A single quiet Thursday or Friday let's me out pace all my peers books of work. The company just wastes their money when they make me show up in person. I don't even by lunch or snacks out there or anything so it doesn't even support local economy. Just wasting time and money for people who can't keep their home organized enough to effectively work from.

[-] Cthulhus_Cuck@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Same as you, but I only like being in when it's quiet lol, so now that mandatory 3 day RTO is a thing for my company am in the office less than before :)

[-] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago

I think there is a benefit to coming in, but when I do get called into the office the 1st 2 hours is like a social gathering. I don't even work in the building my team is assigned to. I just try to hide from everyone to find a quiet place to work. I'll come in, say hi to people, and fuck right off. We don't have assigned desks n we have an area people usually sit at, but I don't want my boss looking over my shoulder, and I don't want to chit chat so I just bounce to a quiet place and then ask myself why I'm even in office.

[-] CustodialTeapot@lemmy.world 13 points 6 months ago

Anyone have a non-paywalled link?

[-] drasglaf@sh.itjust.works 32 points 6 months ago

Rockstar Games, a division of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., will ask employees to return to the office five days a week beginning in April as the video-game maker enters the final stages of development on its next game, the hotly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI.

In an email to staff on Wednesday reviewed by Bloomberg, Rockstar Head of Publishing Jenn Kolbe said the decision was made for productivity and security reasons. The company has faced several security breaches including a massive dump of early footage from the new Grand Theft Auto and an early trailer that leaked in December.

Kolbe wrote that the company also found “tangible benefits” from in-person work. “Making these changes now puts us in the best position to deliver the next Grand Theft Auto at the level of quality and polish we know it requires, along with a publishing roadmap that matches the scale and ambition of the game,” she wrote.

Return-to-office mandates have been a hot topic across various industries since the pandemic forced myriad employees to work from home. More recently, many employers have asked staff to return to the office for two or three days a week. A study last month found that remote work did not have an impact on productivity.

The issue has been particularly controversial among video-game workers thanks to the volatility of the industry and its lack of a centralized workforce. Many of 2023’s biggest video-game hits, such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 from Insomniac Games, were developed remotely.

[-] b3an@lemmy.world 26 points 6 months ago

This security they mention is ridiculous. They have billions they can use to secure workstations and increase security for their systems. Many large companies managed to do this already.. even without near limitless cash. So to me this smells like BS.

[-] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 months ago

Yeah but it cost money to do so. And that would benefit mostly the employees, you can't have that in today's cutthroat capitalism.

[-] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 months ago

The company has faced several security breaches including a massive dump of early footage from the new Grand Theft Auto and an early trailer that leaked in December.

As if this hasn't happened before lmao what a joke they are actually clowns.

[-] Olhonestjim@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

"Oh no! Someone is generating interest in our game!"

[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 11 points 6 months ago

5 days in the office 2 days working from home

[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 9 points 6 months ago

so they made gta6 and are being laid off, basically?

[-] tandem@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago

This means the layoff notices are due in ~2 months

[-] Snapz@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago
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this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024
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