"Rockstar Games defends itself over working conditions claims", 18 October 2018

Rockstar North’s co-studio head Rob Nelson has defended the video games studio’s working conditions in the wake of a controversy sparked by a New York Magazine profile, in which founder Dan Houser said “we were working 100-hour weeks” on…Red Dead Redemption 2.

Houser later clarified his comments in a statement...saying that it applied only to himself and three other members of the senior writing team over a period of “weeks, not years” – not to all of the developer’s staff. “…that additional effort is a choice, and we don’t ask or expect anyone to work anything like this…”…

…on social media, former employees…countered that they had been expected to work a lot of overtime…One…tweet…read: “I worked 80-hour weeks at Rockstar until I had a breakdown …”…

...Nelson acknowledged that Rockstar’s working culture has been in need of improvement...“…is there overtime…put in? Yes, there is. Is it something we want happening…? No…We…will not stop working to improve...”...

…Statistics provided by Rockstar…show that the average working week was between 42.4 and 45.8 hours…during the studio’s busiest week, 20% of employees reported working 60 hours or more…

…employees working on Red Dead Redemption 2 began sharing…often positive stories of their experiences. “…work practices have definitely improved … Crunch…has definitely been a lot better…” said one…coder…