A new rumor has appeared hinting at the development status of Grand Theft Auto VI.
As reported by Bloomberg, Rockstar Head of Publishing Jenn Kolbe sent a letter to Rockstar employees “asking” them to return to their offices for the last few months of production on the highly anticipated game. The return to office mandate is for five days a week, and is being made for security and productivity purposes. Kolbe wrote:
“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.”
Of course, this return to office mandate is a touchy subject in connection to the pandemic. At the peak of the pandemic’s global quarantine period, companies around the world learned to adjust and had their workers work from home. This was not possible for everyone, but of course, it was absolutely possible for the video game industry. If not for everyone, for most game industry workers, this was a matter of taking their work computers home, and getting them connected to each other online securely.
Rockstar has a pretty unique place to be able to make this particular demand. While other video game companies have been firing staff in the past two years, Rockstar has not announced such layoffs. That may be because they are entering the final phases of development on Grand Theft Auto VI.
Grand Theft Auto VI seems to have taken this strange spot in some gamers and industry members’ minds as a can’t miss title. There are analysts claiming that Sony is going to release a PlayStation 5 Pro, in spite of dipping console sales, to have them ready for the release of this game.
On the other side of the fence, Rockstar has justifiable reasons to claim they need to clamp down on security. The company was famously part of a widespread tech industry hack. That hack led to the public release of Grand Theft Auto V’s source code, and also the leak of an early version of Grand Theft Auto VI.
With all that said, Rockstar’s argument that returning to work is required isn’t quite justified by this incident. The said hacker was able to access files thanks to social engineering, something that could have been done on either a remote or office setup.
Rockstar did not mention this particular hack, so to be clear, it was not that they were citing it as the specific reason for the mandate. It was more that they had already experienced security breaches before, and they can’t afford for them to happen again.
Grand Theft Auto VI’s success or failure could determine if Rockstar joins the wave of layoffs the industry is currently experiencing. There are also stakes in other parts of the industry, that this title’s success could signal AAA single player experiences can still be a viable business. With all of this at stake, it’s no wonder Rockstar is willing to risk their workers’ wrath to protect the project.
Grand Theft Auto VI will be released in 2025 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
