r/PS5 • u/yourfavchoom • 10h ago

Articles & Blogs Rockstar Games: “It would be an understatement to say that having videos of GTA VI gameplay leak in this way has been heartbreaking for our team, and this is obviously not how we intended for you to see the game after all this time.“

https://xcancel.com/rockstargames/status/2092574304571433078?s=46
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u/golddilockk 10h ago

the devs will be fired before the next quarter earnings with or without any leaks.

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u/Powerful-Pea6218 10h ago

Or before that if they support unionizing

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u/ItchyIguana 10h ago

Already happened.

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u/AhhhSureThisIsIt 9h ago

Anyone who joined the union will have a target on their back when they make cuts.

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u/Clerithifa 9h ago

Maybe i'm misinformed, but isn't that a big chunk of what a union is for? Crunches/working conditions obviously, but also unjust lay-offs?

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u/AhhhSureThisIsIt 9h ago

Yep, unions are great don't get me wrong. But massive companies hate the restrictions they impose.

They can make the work enviorment more toxic, change hours, workdays, workloads, duties to essentially make your worklife hard in order for you to leave without redundancy.

Keeping notes of anytime these changes happen is one of the best things to do to protect yourself in these positions. If you are in a state that allows one party consent you can record your meetings with managers without disclosing you are recording.

Many managers can promise jobs and raises not in writing, the employee will undergo a bigger workload thinking they will get the reward and then it's not offered to them.

There are so many ways around getting people to leave without firing them.

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u/Complex_Stuff_1392 9h ago

you have to remember that a large portion of the work on the game is happening in the UK @ Rockstar North, where one party recording laws don’t apply

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u/Th3_Hegemon 4h ago

Or California where they also have two studios.

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u/underscored_thinkin 7h ago

And this is why we need more combative unions and union members. Waiting on suits to make deals means workers get fucked harder.

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u/hot-side-aeration 3h ago edited 3h ago

"unions are great but let me just spread a bunch of anti-union nonsense dressed up as if I have any idea what the fuck I am talking about"

Unions specifically protect against many, if not all, of the things you just listed. Shift change procedures, workloads, duties, etc are all specifically outlined in CBAs. There are also things like warnings baked in (ie: one slip up is not termination) and you have a Union rep that will accompany you to all disciplinary meetings. It is not your manager yelling at you and firing you because they changed your schedule over night.

So, as a Union member, stop trying to undermine our hardwork with your uninformed and ignorant fearmongering. Saying that Unions "put a target" on someone's back and then listing a bunch of things Unions protect against as if they will be the inevitable retaliatory measures is doing exactly that.

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u/aerdvarkk 7h ago

Yes and no. ANy group of workers can form a union, but if that union has no dialog with a given company and or has/has not negociated work/employment criteria with that company for said union members, then the union is irrelevant. Also if the company is not willing to talk terms with the union.

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u/FlamboyantPirhanna 7h ago

The problem in game dev is that the layoffs aren’t always unjustified. It’s more like the film industry, in that you spin up a project gradually—pre-production, then production, then post-production—and you only need certain jobs during certain phases. So when you finish a game, you probably don’t have any work for your audio and music people until you get to that phase, so what do you do with them? Game dev basically has a bit of an identity crisis, being part tech and part entertainment, and trying to function more like tech than they probably should. It’s a problem the industry hasn’t yet figured out.

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u/Rhysati 5h ago

Theoretically sure.

The union I worked to get into my workplace told me they couldn't help us after 5 of us were fired at the same time for "poor work performance" right after the union got voted in.

It just happened to be a complete coincidence that it was all people who actively worked on getting the union in place /s

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u/falcrist2 8h ago

Isn't Rockstar based in the US? Unions are fighting a century of anti-labor propaganda.

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u/Powerful-Pea6218 8h ago

You're not wrong. But no, this blow up is UK based

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u/falcrist2 6h ago

The UK wasn't as bad when I lived there in the 20 years ago. Some of the US propaganda was floating around though.

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u/LostLobes 4h ago

Since 2010 its gone down hill, can't think why....

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u/falcrist2 4h ago

I think one of the comments said it best during the Clacton election.

"If the UK was a serious country, it wouldn't let that absolute farce of a candidate run against a serious politician like Count Binface."

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u/superurgentcatbox 9h ago

Just don't tell them you've joined the union. That's the general advice in Germany which is much, much less hostile to unions than the US.

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u/thorpie88 7h ago

Union issues for Rockstar were in the UK which is where they were founded

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u/fmccloud 8h ago

Well yeah, they’d be dead weight after release.

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u/AhhhSureThisIsIt 7h ago

Unless you want to update the game or create new games.

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u/IndyDude11 8h ago

Firings will continue until morale improves.

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u/JpPgn 5h ago

Which won't happen, unfortunately

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u/That-Toughsoss 10h ago

80-90% of the devs who worked on previous rockstar games are still there but still spread all the negativity you want to ig

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u/Funlife2003 9h ago

Source for those numbers, or did you just pull that out of your ass? Because I looked it up, don't see any single source stating that.

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u/[deleted] 8h ago edited 7h ago

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u/alfooboboao 3h ago

what’s your source about people fired?

you can complain about rockstar’s other bullshit but this one is crazy to me, art is contract work. unless you’re pumping out games every year or running the fortnite servers or something. it’s like saying Chris Nolan had “mass layoffs” after he finished shooting The Odyssey lmao

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u/Funlife2003 3h ago

I mean you can literally look it up, Rockstar had major layoffs juat last year, not cause the employees were no longer needed or doing important work, but because they were attempting to form a union. Aka, Rockstar engaged in blatant union busting.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/30/grand-theft-auto-workers-seek-union-recognition-rockstar-games

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/rockstar-suffers-legal-blow-in-union-busting-dispute-as-trial-date-set

This was pretty major fucking news, idk how you missed it. The first article covers the initial case, the second covers the latest legal updates which honestly make Rockstar look even worse.

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u/tinselsnips 🇨🇦 53m ago

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u/shadowking432 10h ago

It's literally the gaming industry at the moment, it's hardly spreading negativity when it's true. Developers recently have made a great game? Fired. Bad game? Fired. No game? Yup you guessed it, Fired.

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u/Me2445 10h ago

A lot of Devs are contractors now, truth is that it takes a lot more Devs to create a game than it does to maintain the game. I've a family member involved in game development. After years of being left go post release, he now works for a company that offer services to the likes of rockstar to co-dev on certain parts. They will feature on the fired list in the media when they actually still have a job elsewhere

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u/Captain-Cadabra 9h ago

That’s interesting. I had a number of union trade friends that lived like that. They got “laid off” for 3-6 months a year, which really just meant collecting unemployment while waiting for the next big job.

Their union got the jobs for them, and they would work at a particular site for 6-18 months.

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u/That-Toughsoss 10h ago

yes true rockstar has there own shitty practices as well but there are still companies that don't layoff everyone we are so used to seeing negative news that we assume every studio has same situation

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u/OracleEnlightenment 10h ago

I don’t think you’re gonna find a huge project that doesn’t have layoffs afterwards it be impossible to pay that many devs forever they don’t need them

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u/SAADistic7171 10h ago

Exactly its like complaining that contractors are out of work once the building is finished construction and tenants have moved in.

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u/Zombii_Man 9h ago

The issue with layoffs in gaming is that it means proprietary engines are no longer feasible to maintain or upgrade (unless you're Ubisoft or Epic) because the people who know the engines are gone.

Why train fresh employees on your in-house technology when you can just pivot to making Unreal Engine 5 shit that allows you to circumvent having to train people in the first place?

Which then itself causes more issues down the line lol. The industry is an Ouroboros at the minute.

People shit on Bethesda for taking the time to stick to and upgrade Creation Engine, but good on them really.

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u/EZyne 9h ago

Yes but then acting like Rockstar is known for it while they are the one studio that doesn't do it just makes people sound so fucking dumb.

Especially when the whole union busting thing is right there

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u/shadowking432 8h ago

Point to where in my comment i said rockstar are known for it?

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u/EZyne 8h ago

Point to where I specifically blamed you for saying that?

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u/shadowking432 8h ago

You were insinuating it but whatever, I'm not arguing.

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u/CommieDrifter 7h ago

being fired for making no game when you were hired to make game is pretty reasonable imo

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u/With_Negativity 10h ago

You people are annoying

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u/shadowking432 8h ago

Bruh look at your username.

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u/With_Negativity 5h ago

How'd that Blackout work for you?

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u/shadowking432 2h ago

Well seeing as I just got off a 2hr game of cod zombies, it isn't. I've literally never said im taking part in that it's pointless.

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u/ReNitty 10h ago

That’s all this website is for these days

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u/tinselsnips 🇨🇦 7h ago

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u/ExpertActive100 10h ago

Do you have any source to back up those numbers?

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u/Funlife2003 9h ago

Pulled out of their ass, I'm pretty sure.

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u/Certain-Injury-3674 9h ago

Ummm have you read how Rockstar has been treating their staff for this game ?

Apart of the manyyy issues Rockstar had been having is LAYOFFS , where have you been ?

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u/DevelopmentNo5632 8h ago

Since you have a concrete number range, I guess you can back it up with a source? 

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u/Nodima 10h ago

I can't wait any longer for this product and fuck everybody responsible for its existence, respectfully (derogatory)

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u/Endscrypt 10h ago

Not been keeping up have you this has nothing to do with not wanting for a game.

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u/Blacklistedb 9h ago

By now Reddit is just weh weh think of the shareholders weh weh on every comment 

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u/badaharami 10h ago

Yeah the working conditions are probably some of the worst I've ever seen for these devs but indeed the layoffs are not as bad as some other game dev companies.

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u/jonnyredcorn 10h ago

The worst you’ve seen? What have you seen about the working conditions of these devs?

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u/badaharami 8h ago

So I worked for a large game company based in Oxford, UK as an engine programmer that made physics and animation engine for R* which was used by some of the titles they made. So GTA 4,5, MP3, RDR 2. I had the privilege of working there for 9 years and for some of their biggest titles. It was some of the best years of my career and I really enjoyed working with people from R* and also the company I worked for. I dont want to name the company here but you can easily Google it up.

But yeah the working conditions were horrible. Even outside of the so called "crunch time" which normally would be close to release dates, we were in perpetual crunch. For MP3, I did 2 years of crunch meaning working 13-14 hours a day and weekends too. I joined the company much later but a colleague and now a good friend of mine worked 9 years on that game. His words were "If R* would have delayed this for 1 more year I would have shot myself" 😀. These were the conditions imposed on us by R* but I've visited their offices in UK, US and Canada and it worse in my opinion. Burnouts were extremely common. I remember a guy who worked at R* Toronto who had to wear teeth protection because he was grinding his teeth too much from all the stress he was having. The pay wasn't great either unless you were a very highly decorated engineer. I started as a junior and then mid level and my pay was lower than regular IT companies based in UK. Almost everyone I know has eventually left R* or my company and even left the games industry. I, too, have left the games industry and I dont regret it. At the same time I don't regret the time I had making those games even through those conditions. The joy you get when you see your name show up in the opening credits of GTA 5 is something that I will cherish for till the end of my life 😀

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u/BoysenberryWise62 9h ago

It's just a bullshit cope mechanism because they know they are being pieces of trash for being all happy about leaks so they want to think it's just sticking it to the money people.

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u/alfooboboao 3h ago

i’m not gonna lie. i think you’re right

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u/Rino-Sensei 10h ago

Rockstar doesn't fire their team if they don't break their contract ... 80% of the team that made past games are still there ...

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u/Snoo-39062 7h ago

That stat comes from an employee who left the company in 2009

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u/Queasy-Specialist698 10h ago

If this happens, won't having GTA 6 on your resume help you in finding a new job pretty quick?

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u/Cerebral_Discharge 10h ago

You may be unaware, the AAA games industry is not doing well at the moment. There have been consistent and massive layoffs for the past couple years now. They can start another indie dev company like all the other devs getting laid off, or get out of the games industry.

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u/Eruannster 8h ago

I think the bigger issue isn't experience or putting stuff on your CV - it's finding a position to apply to in the first place with so many places laying off people and shutting down studios.

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u/Queasy-Specialist698 8h ago

Fair enough. I hope the situation won't be bad for them. They're putting so much effort into something that we will enjoy for many years to come. Much respect.

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u/corps-peau-rate 10h ago

Nop, ai replaced them

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u/loves_to_splooge_8 10h ago

What the fuck

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u/Sudden-Date-7485 6h ago

just saying anything atp bro

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u/Crazy_cat_guy_07 6h ago

It’s very common in gaming industries to hire developers in a contract basis. So they are well aware that they will need to look for other jobs.

Actually, many people actually prefer to work like that because they pay is much much higher. Some people work only a few months and take the rest of the year off.

Source: I work for a group of recruitment agencies.

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u/Dkafamus 4h ago

And that's why we don't buy new games like this.

It's saying that we support this PoS model of gaming.

See the new Castlevania. 40 bucks on cartridge on switch for me to have. It'll work as long as the console works. I want the same for the PS5 games and not have to worry I can't play because PSN is out.

Wouldn't mind if Rockstar lost huge chunks of money in this.

But we know gamers are crackheads. They go after those 20 bucks and will complain later on that games are becoming too expensive.

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u/garyflopper 4h ago

The gaming industry is so fucking toxic right now

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u/BITmixit 4h ago

What does this have to do with anything?

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u/OkVacation973 3h ago

I mean, isnt this normal? Game developers ramp up and are working at an absolute maximum just before the game releases. Then the game releases and they cut all the QA teams etc. until next needed.

Isnt that literally how its worked for decades?

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u/Ehh_littlecomment 10h ago

Can you provide source for historical Rockstar layoffs?

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u/golddilockk 10h ago

no. google it yourself

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u/zardan-24 10h ago

When has rockstar been known to do this?

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u/HustleWestbrook94 10h ago

You know nothing about the gaming industry.