We’re well past the pandemic. Just a few years ago, we were all in all kinds of lockdown orders. People were told to stay home and keep away from each other as healthcare officials worked through a proper vaccine. This move forced so many jobs to become remote, allowing a transition to continue working at home without having to venture back to the offices. However, we’re seeing more companies, such as Rockstar Games, request employees to return.
The game development studios also underwent a few notable changes during this time. We had a boom in the gaming industry as consumers flocked to the new consoles and games. This was a way to keep entertained at home or connect with friends online. Meanwhile, studios were working mainly remotely, which seemed to be rather popular among employees.
You were eliminating the need to head into the offices early, deal with traffic, and be away from family. We’ve seen quite a few studios commit to these remote work options, allowing employees to continue with their jobs at home. Others have allowed an option to work from home while splitting some days out of the week within the offices. Rockstar Games is looking to eliminate the remote work options entirely.
As we reported earlier today, it looks like Rockstar Games wants employees to head back into the offices as they press forward with the last bit of work for Grand Theft Auto VI. It’s also a means to keep the game secure. After all, it was very damaging when countless video clips of Grand Theft Auto VI surfaced online well before the game was ready to be announced to the public. That unveiled various details to the public and was pretty damaging to the marketing hype of the game.
Now we’re seeing more workers comment on the remote orders. One of the biggest comes from the IWGB, the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain. After speaking with employees, it seems that this announcement to return came without notice or consultation.
A statement was since released from the IWGB calling Rockstar Games out for lack of transparency and demands for inclusive workplace culture. You can read the statement released below, along with several comments made by employees right here.
The workers in the IWGB Game Workers Union at Rockstar are pushing for transparency over pay and promotions, a healthy and inclusive workplace culture, and work life balance centred around what each worker needs. It is unacceptable that Rockstar leadership have gone back on their word time and time again and have ignored the workers’ requests for basic working conditions.
Workers across the industry are done with letting executives make reckless and harmful decisions and the Rockstar workers are showing us the start of what’s to come if they’re continually ignored. There’s no better time than now to join our union and push for this to be the healthy and sustainable games industry we know it can be.”
Austin Kelmore – IWGB Game Workers Chair
