We reported earlier today that the team at Rockstar Games are working extremely hard to make Red Dead Redemption 2 the best sequel it can possibly be, putting in up to 100-hour work weeks to make it shine. But that reveal has put people into an uproar on social media, with some even swearing they won’t touch the game due to these conditions.
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However, to be fair, Rockstar isn’t the first publisher to utilize “crunch time,” and it more than likely won’t be the last. And the company did note in a recent interview with Vulture that it’s not about pushing its employees to its limits.
Rockstar’s team recently pointed out a particular quote about working conditions at its company, coming from vice president of creative Dan Houser.
He noted, “There seems to be some confusion arising from my interview with Harold Goldberg. The point I was trying to make in the article was related to how the narrative and dialogue in the game was crafted, which was mostly what we talked about, not about the different processes of the wider team. After working on the game for seven years, the senior writing team, which consists of four people, Mike Unsworth, Rupert Humphries, Lazlow and myself, had, as we always do, three weeks of intense work when we wrapped everything up. Three weeks, not years. We have all worked together for at least 12 years now, and feel we need this to get everything finished. After so many years of getting things organized and ready on this project, we needed this to check and finalize everything.
“More importantly, we obviously don’t expect anyone else to work this way. Across the whole company, we have some senior people who work very hard purely because they’re passionate about a project, or their particular work, and we believe that passion shows in the games we release. But that additional effort is a choice, and we don’t ask or expect anyone to work anything like this. Lots of other senior people work in an entirely different way and are just as productive – I’m just not one of them! No one, senior or junior, is ever forced to work hard. I believe we go to great lengths to run a business that cares about its people, and to make the company a great place for them to work.”
And more than likely, with the game set to make major money this holiday season, Rockstar likely has a reward program in place where bonuses can be earned, and vacations as well once the Red Dead Online program kicks off next month. Considering that the team’s last game, Grand Theft Auto V, cleaned up with nearly 100 million copies sold, there’s probably something in place for Red Dead 2 that will make all that effort worthwhile.
Red Dead Redemption 2 releases on October 26 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
