In an interview with Vulture published earlier this week, Rockstar's Dan Houser made mention of specific members of Red Dead Redemption 2's dev team working 100-hour weeks. He later clarified the statement, and a number of current Rockstar employees have since spoken of their experience within the company.
As reported by gamesindustry.biz, Rockstar San Diego tools programmer Vivianne Langdon spoke first by declaring the most she's ever worked in three and half years at the company is "maybe 50 hours a week". Moreover, she describes this as a "rare occurrence", before detailing the intricacies of her experience with paid overtime.
Langdon stresses that the points shared are exclusive to her experience, and that she's "not being compensated" by her employer for doing so. Here's the start of that thread:
R* has granted permission for us to speak frankly about this issue on social media. I want to stress that this is is my uncurated personal opinion, I am not being compensated for this post in any way and am making it voluntarily. I'm only going to speak to my personal experience.October 18, 2018
A number of other Rockstar employees appear to feel the same way as Langdon—best outlined by the retweets housed in Rockstar North environmental artist Niels Biliet's timeline.
Some examples include:
Quite simply, I've loved working on #RDR2 more than any other project we've made. It's astounding. We work hard, but these tales of enforced 100hr weeks are completely untrue in my experience.October 18, 2018
This week my Twitter timeline has been full of guff. I've been at R* for 6 years and I have never worked, or been asked to work, anywhere remotely close to 100 hours in a week.October 18, 2018
I have worked at Rockstar North for four and a half years now. I can only talk about my personal experience not the company as a whole.For me this has been the nicest place I have ever worked with the nicest people. The recent commentary vilifying us has been heartbreaking.October 18, 2018
It's however worth noting others have shared opinions which quite clearly contradict the above—not least ex-Rockstar employee Job Stauffer.
It's been nearly a decade since I parted from Rockstar, but I can assure you that during the GTA IV era, it was like working with a gun to your head 7 days a week. "Be here Saturday & Sunday too, just in case Sam or Dan come in, they want to see everyone working as hard as them." https://t.co/TaQS5LnaAaOctober 16, 2018
There was an instance in 08 or 09 when I legitimately had THE FLU. Needed a day off. Went to Drx, got an Rx for Tamiflu, had an allergic reaction, tweeted a photo, then got put on notice for not coming in to work and 'fooling around on twitter' instead. True story. Fucking crazy. https://t.co/TaQS5LnaAaOctober 16, 2018
