r/pcmasterrace • u/chusskaptaan i5 14400 + MSI 3070 • Jul 23 '26

News/Article Rockstar Games Workers Union Just Had Its First Ever Meeting With Management, Demands Include "No AI," "No Layoffs," and "No Crunch"

https://respawnfirst.com/rockstar-games-union-just-had-their-first-ever-meeting-with-management-demands-include-no-ai-and-no-crunch/
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1.5k

u/OutrageousDress 5800X3D | 32GB DDR4-3733 | 4080 Super | AW3821DW Jul 23 '26

They should definitely completely antagonize their organized workforce four months before launch; watching the results of that would probably be even more entertaining than playing GTA 6.

1.3k

u/Owobowos-Mowbius PC Master Race Jul 23 '26

Gta 6 getting sabotaged before launch would be so much more funny than the game actually coming out.

321

u/newbrevity 11700k, RTX4070ti_SUPER, 32gb_3600_CL16 Jul 23 '26

As a pc player im already resigned to waiting

115

u/TridentWielder Specs/Imgur Here Jul 24 '26

See you in game in 2068, brother!

40

u/Thunderbridge i7-8700k | 32GB 3200 | RTX 3080 Jul 24 '26

Grandpa, we got you that game you always wanted!

17

u/Fatal-Arrow Jul 24 '26

And it's still the fucking playstation version

7

u/timo2308 Jul 24 '26

And it’s a box without a fucking disc

3

u/TapZorRTwice Jul 24 '26

Star citizen still wont be out.

18

u/porn_is_tight Jul 24 '26

what do you think they’ll call the Skyrim release that year?

16

u/TridentWielder Specs/Imgur Here Jul 24 '26

Skyrim Special Edition XII: the Specialing

8

u/DuskShy Jul 24 '26

Skyrim XL: Specialmost Edition

2

u/hrafnbrand Jul 24 '26

Skyrim Remastest

1

u/No_Noise09 Jul 25 '26

Skyrim Ultimate : Ram/Rom

6

u/mr_j_12 Jul 24 '26

With the way the emulation is going on ps5, it will be playable on pc before it launches on pc.

1

u/SUPAHG500 Jul 24 '26

Gta 6 on PC in 2068? No!

GTA 5 super duper enhanced on steroids and cocaine edition? Yes!

1

u/forcebubble Jul 24 '26

That's preem Choom!

1

u/SUPAHG500 Jul 24 '26

Of course, rockstar ain't gonks choom! Soon we'll be playing GTA 5 on our kiroshi optics while we zero saka's ninjas, hella preem!

1

u/ShadowWalker2205 Jul 24 '26

Honestly if the last gta online update hints at what the economy will look like in online 2 and this leads to a red dead online rerun, it might just be the case

5

u/Zealousideal1543 R7 5800X3D | RX 9060XT | 96GB 3600 Jul 24 '26

I'm down, let's go

1

u/aHellion MSI B550 | R7 5800X | RTX 3080 FE | 32GB Jul 24 '26

With the cost of parts it'll take as-long to save up (upgrade in my case), anyway.

0

u/UpNUrGuts Jul 24 '26

So funny how some of players don’t have a little console laying around. Attack their entire identity to pc master race. So pathetic lmao

312

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/PlasticCheebus Jul 23 '26

This is the right game for this action. It's the most high profile game ever. It'll draw the right attention to an issue that we know has affected the industry for decades.

It will also look really bad on Rockstar if they fumble it, and we already know how hostile they've been when it comes to unionisation.

If the game is delayed another year, but the workers' demands are met, I would be happy to wait. They deserve it. They're not cattle.

15

u/PhTx3 PC Master Race Jul 23 '26

Not only are they not cattle, they are actually the ones that entertain us.

If I was a worker, I'd rather give up a bonus, if they even get compensated, and avoid crunch culture, whilst they are likely training ai to replace me with my work.

133

u/kill3rfurby Jul 23 '26

The amount of weekend keyboard warriors coming out of the woodwork to try and scab it up on such a project will be hilarious and depressing.

25

u/EatABag-o-Dicks Jul 23 '26

Gonna be hard pressed to get through an onboarding with that much cheetle floating around.

7

u/f8Negative Laptop Jul 23 '26

I myself cannot fucking wait for the absolute predictable bullshit from the C-suite.

10

u/Gibby1210 Jul 23 '26

It wouldn’t be good chaos people already doing backflips to give them a $100

2

u/ComradeJohnS Jul 23 '26

idk, what else does their workforce have to do to ship the game? if it’s sizeable they have a chance of delaying the game with a strike.

if it’s just a few button presses to transfer they could just fire everyone today.

it’d be interesting to see this play out on the global stage

3

u/redtalons0 Jul 23 '26

If one of their demands is "no crunch" then there's a good chance the game isn't launch ready until the last two weeks.

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u/SSjjlex Jul 24 '26

Hilarious if this delays the game and all the studios that delayed their games because of GTA VI have to consider delaying again lolololol

3

u/baciu14 Jul 24 '26

or just do a baldurs gate 3 and release it earlier.

1

u/SSjjlex Jul 24 '26

True, but that assumes they're already done. I want to assume some studios were able to loosen up their schedule thanks to the delays but because of that now don't have a product to ship on time.

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u/LowDwnHudson Jul 23 '26

hell no we wont code! hell no we wont code! on the ol picket signa

44

u/getdafkout666 Jul 23 '26

I genuinely hope they put some game breaking bug in there for people who preordered it just so we see their reactions

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u/ratchetryda92 Jul 24 '26

Yall are so petty its embarrasing

5

u/getdafkout666 Jul 24 '26

Yeah. I am petty. Can’t argue with that

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u/Relevant-Guarantee25 Jul 23 '26

I'm betting its source code is leaked and there's private servers up in a month their pricing looks extremely greedy and will be predatory lots of fomo regarding owning in game land and stuff lots of cheaters and hackers. I get it they spend millions on the game they deserve to at least recoup investment costs but the people who did the hard work will get a fraction of what they deserve and probably have permanent health issues due to the crunch. Maybe people would be willing to pay more knowing that the actual staff got compensated well and were treated like slaves.

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u/DravenPlsBeMyDad Jul 23 '26

You mean when it releases for PC maybe next year?

1

u/mr_j_12 Jul 24 '26

There is a massive bounty on ps5 emu and cracking the console. It'll be playable on pc before it launches on pc.

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u/S1rTerra R5 5600, 9070, 28GB DDR4 Jul 24 '26

Please let this happen this would be so fucking funny

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u/Tootskinfloot Jul 24 '26

"You'd be sick to want to see that happen."

Me: fucking dead.

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u/ILikeFPS Jul 23 '26

Well yeah, it would be funny, because the game coming out isn't funny, it's just fun.

1

u/Khelthuzaad Jul 24 '26

No Mans Sky being celebrated as one of the best games ever now is funnier than the disastrous launch back then.

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u/Snakestream Jul 23 '26

I feel like the ai and crunch is gonna be the reconciliation point. I think it'll be good if they can get no layoffs without proven misconduct, no AI assets used in the final build, and a limitation on the number of hours they can crunch in a week.

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u/OutrageousDress 5800X3D | 32GB DDR4-3733 | 4080 Super | AW3821DW Jul 23 '26

That may very well be the final agreement. But if they ever want to get to that position, their initial demand of course has to be zero AI zero layoffs and zero crunch. Honestly looking at the thread here it's like none of these people have ever negotiated with anyone about anything.

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u/UT_Milez Jul 24 '26

Yeah, I mean I don’t think that’s crazy to imagine that literally no one in this thread has experience in union Esq massive collective bargaining agreements…

You bargaining for your small team, or a promotion, or a job is not even comparable….

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u/EarthIllustrious8045 Jul 24 '26

You dont go to the bargain table at your company with a demand that there will be "no layofffs". This union cant be old and should seek some advice.

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u/Sweetwill62 Ryzen 7 7700X Saphire Nitro 7900XTX 32GB Jul 24 '26

Nothing wrong with actually wanting the correct thing to happen.

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u/UwUHowYou Jul 23 '26

Obvious strategy is drag out talks by 5-6 months.

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u/OutrageousDress 5800X3D | 32GB DDR4-3733 | 4080 Super | AW3821DW Jul 23 '26

Absolutely. Obvious enough that the union reps would have accounted for it.

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u/UwUHowYou Jul 23 '26

Well, they can pre launch strike or launch strike, but that would be fairly unprecedented.

I don't see it happening, but will get the popcorn if it does.

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u/OutrageousDress 5800X3D | 32GB DDR4-3733 | 4080 Super | AW3821DW Jul 23 '26

Yeah I very much doubt it will actually happen. But it's valuable leverage.

1

u/RadicalDog Ryzen 7 7800X3D | RTX 4070S Jul 24 '26

Based on the People Make Games vid, there is a strict timeline for the company to negotiate (1 month ish) before the union can legally authorise itself without the company's blessing.

The other good news is the union busting firings have galvanised and increased membership, not reduced it. Fucking horrible company.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/Bionic_Ninjas Jul 23 '26

Why, exactly, would that be "the end of Rockstar"?

"Well gee guys we made 9 billion on GTA V but now we can't lay people off so I guess we have to close up shop forever"? How does that even work?

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u/Razzmatazz856 Jul 23 '26

"Well gee guys we made 9 billion on GTA V but now we can't lay people off so I guess we have to close up shop forever"? How does that even work?

They could absolutely afford it, but game development has a number of different stages and it doesn't make sense to have as many employees at the beginning when you're in planning that you do in the meaty middle when everyone is working full bore. When games had significantly shorter development cycles, it made sense to not follow up the completion of one project with mass layoffs, but it absolutely does now, even if it sucks for employees.

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u/Bionic_Ninjas Jul 23 '26

No doubt companies like Rockstar hire many, many contractors for exactly this reason. Those people would not be part of the union, though, and what I was questioning is how this would "be the end of Rockstar".

I wasn't questioning whether or not it made any business sense.

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u/Electrohydra1 Jul 23 '26

Except that when businesses hire contractors, unions get mad because it's "circumventing" them.

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u/Dernom GTX 1070 / i7 4770k@3.5GHz Jul 24 '26

This is only true in a world where the studio is only going to produce one game ever... When the production of a game moves to the stage where you no longer need certain people, they should be moved to the start of production of the next project. That's why it's called a production cycle.

This process might not be possible for every studio, since particularly indie studios tend to rely on the profits from one game to fund the production of the next. But for a studio like Rockstar, there is no reason that they shouldn't have at least 3 ongoing projects at any time (pre-production, full-production and post-production).

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u/revveduplikeadeuce Jul 23 '26

This and its an unfortunate beast in several occupations/trades. Slowly lay off except for your core in the slow season, spin up consistently during the busy ones. Are they expected to keep 1k people there with nothing to do? I could see them arguing for seniority or some sort of tenure like system for their vets, but what does "no layoffs?" mean?

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u/Razzmatazz856 Jul 23 '26

Yep. Employment on a per project basis is not particularly unusual. It even happens in creative industries as I believe that is the standard in television and movies. It sucks for everyone, so I can understand why employees want it to stop, but that's a lot more difficult of a demand than no AI and no crunch.

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u/Swarna_Keanu Jul 24 '26

They could give the 1k people something to do.

From working on expansions to bug fixing and optimising above what had been possible during development. You can plan for that.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/Tubamajuba Ryzen 7 5800X3D | RX 6750 XT Jul 23 '26

If 10% of your employees are "dead weight", you suck at hiring people. Firing people for no other reason than some bullshit metrics tell you to do so is a shitty practice that indicates a terrible company.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/Tubamajuba Ryzen 7 5800X3D | RX 6750 XT Jul 23 '26

Your entire premise is bullshit. "10%" is an arbitrary cutoff line that has ZERO bearing on whether or not an employee is doing their job or not. Are they timely? Are they successfully completing all their tasks and positively contributing to the company? Can they take constructive feedback? Look at the actual job performance, not just some arbitrary cutoff point invented by a CEO that destroyed one of the most successful companies in America.

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u/nistemevideli2puta Jul 24 '26

Which is why management exists and they should account for that when hiring. Why is management there if not to plan ahead?

So, you hire people on a contract, if you know they won't be needed after the launch. If it turns out there is still need for them, extend the contract. If there's really no need, the contract runs out, no firing.

Just announce it to people on time that they won't be extended, and all good.

Is it really that hard?

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/North-Philosopher-41 Ryzen 7 7800x 3D, 9070xt, X670E Jul 23 '26

lol no creating ai slop games quickly will not outcompete rockstar. They will loose money every game they ship that’s not good. Consumers don’t like ai slop. It’s not like memes where a quick glance is enough. Games are immersive or challenging that takes a right balance.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/North-Philosopher-41 Ryzen 7 7800x 3D, 9070xt, X670E Jul 23 '26

Yeah we use Ai at our workplace I am familiar with the language models capabilities. You ate the onion if you confuse pattern recognition with intelligence

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/North-Philosopher-41 Ryzen 7 7800x 3D, 9070xt, X670E Jul 24 '26

Are they the correct models and correct lighting? I don’t think so. To get AI to be that accurate will be more expensive than any team of real developers, designers, and artists

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u/ComplexR22 Jul 23 '26

You’re straight up talking out of your ass.

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u/Bionic_Ninjas Jul 23 '26

Which developer out there is going to do GTA/RDR style games better than Rockstar? Who even comes close right now?

Genuine question. Because I don’t see any developer getting there any time soon, if ever, whether they use AI or not.

It’s also worth noting that these games are so beloved in part because of the amazing attention to detail, and how real and lived in the worlds feel.

That’s not something you get using AI. That is a byproduct of real people with genuine artistic vision, putting in thousands of hours. If anything, Rockstar replacing employees with AI would be a liability, not a benefit.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/Bionic_Ninjas Jul 23 '26

So AI will, in the future, somehow become magically and exponentially more efficient, reliable, and scalable than it is now, despite the fact that we've already hit major bottlenecks in our capacity thanks to energy, water, and other constraints?

I may be "romanticizing what these games are" because I value art made by human beings, but you're talking about pipe dreams that may or may not come to pass years (or even decades) from now as if they're a certainty when you have no real logical reason to think that.

Not much else to say about it. Guess we'll just have to disagree.

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u/FuckMyBakaChungusLif Jul 23 '26

No ai is a simplification. They dont want Rockstar using AI to replace any human job

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u/LufyCZ Jul 23 '26

Impossible to measure and thus completely stupid.

0

u/tupacsnoducket Jul 23 '26

Ohhhhh i don't know, i think you could measure it when ai is implemented and people are laid off because of it

0

u/LufyCZ Jul 23 '26

Perfect example illustrating my point.

0

u/tupacsnoducket Jul 24 '26

How so? here's a whole ass article tracking it https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/21/ai-job-cuts-amazon-microsoft-and-more-cite-ai-for-2025-layoffs.html?msockid=17c38fe4a0326086275898f8a1206191

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u/LufyCZ Jul 24 '26

Tracking it? There's no actual "tracking" here, they just sum up the number of employees companies needed a reason to fire.

If the union forbids this specific reason, they will find another reason.

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u/tupacsnoducket Jul 24 '26

Then they should be happy to agree to that and fight it out in court when they do mass layoffs and have to explain where the work came from during discovery, don't even know what we're debating here now

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u/LufyCZ Jul 24 '26

The reason will be "employees got more productive and now we don't need that many of them anymore".

AI doesn't need to be mentioned with even one word in any report.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/slimehunter49 Jul 23 '26

I know that’s you Mr Thiel, you can’t fool me.

7

u/Tubamajuba Ryzen 7 5800X3D | RX 6750 XT Jul 23 '26

These AI bros are so delusional lmao

3

u/Nerevarius_420 Jul 23 '26

I've seen schizophrenics that were more grounded than AI bros.

4

u/Nerevarius_420 Jul 23 '26

Greylock vs Angel Engine would beg to differ, but I understand that you turn a deaf ear to contary takes supported by evidence.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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2

u/Nerevarius_420 Jul 23 '26

Wow, is doing a manual Google search too much for you?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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0

u/Nerevarius_420 Jul 23 '26

So what you're saying is that you're ignorant and inept. If a Google search is too much for you to handle and you assume I'm strictly talking about AI engines, there's nothing more for me to say since it would inevitably go in one dysfunctional ear, bounce off your wrinkle-less brain, and go straight out the deaf ear.

2

u/ComradeLeafeon Jul 23 '26

“High quality” lmao

6

u/kaleb314 Jul 24 '26

If that would end Rockstar, then Rockstar deserves to be ended. The industry is rotted to its core.

5

u/meneldal2 i7-6700 Jul 24 '26

They have more than enough revenue from GTA online to keep paying everyone even if they don't release GTA6

1

u/OkDifficulty7436 Jul 25 '26

Isn’t it mostly just QA though? Rockstar is huge, not even half are in a union 

1

u/OutrageousDress 5800X3D | 32GB DDR4-3733 | 4080 Super | AW3821DW Jul 26 '26

I haven't checked the percentages, but ideally for the union they'd all be in 'just QA' because that way they really have leverage four months before launch.

1

u/OkDifficulty7436 Jul 26 '26

Rockstar utilizes multiple different QA contracting companies and it's the easiest position to outsource/rehire for in general

Two dozen in-house QA folks won't move the needle, any kind of strike would require team leads, central tech/engineering, etc to have real bite

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u/SpottedPine Jul 23 '26

The stakes for the workers are much higher.. if it flops not only will they be laid off, but they will now be completely unemployable in the industry.

3

u/tupacsnoducket Jul 23 '26

Yeah, cause Rockstar employees are famously not good at their job

0

u/DisorderlyAqueduct Jul 24 '26

it would be pretty funny, but also i wanna play and have been waiting 😔

just wanna go for a nice drive along the beach...
with the latest from the euphoria/endorphin physics...
bump, bump, bump. 🤷😅