A controversy earlier this year swept the game industry when a Kotaku report claimed Rockstar Games had horrific working conditions which pressured workers and developers into excessive overtime also known as “crunch”. Reports from other outlets stated that Rockstar Lincoln, which is used for quality assurance, was a heavily overworked studio whose contractors allegedly felt pressured to do “mandatory” overtime or risk their contracts not being renewed. Some of these contractors claimed that they had to sleep under their desks and worked up to 100-hour work weeks.
Since the controversy, Kotaku reports that the working conditions around the studios have improved, including at Rockstar Lincoln where contractors are now being brought into Rockstar Games as full-time employees.
Kotaku had also reported last year that testers at Lincoln weren’t allowed to keep their cell phones at their desks, and instead must keep them in lockers. This policy, a source now tells us, has been rescinded.
Kotaku also claims that Rockstar is now experimenting with “flex-time”, a new way to allow workers to shift “when they do their assigned work hours.”
