Rockstar responds to allegations of poor working conditions
No business is perfect and making great games is challenging, says Red Dead developer
Rockstar has issued its first response to recent allegations of poor working conditions at its San Diego studio, made in an open letter by anonymous writers claiming to be wives of employees of the studio.
The letter stated that Rockstar was pushing its workers to the brink, expecting them to work 12 hours days, including on a Saturday, and being dishonest about deadlines.
Such conditions were threatening the health of employees, the letter said. It threatened that Rockstar should change its working practices or face legal action.
However, in its first public response since the allegations were published, Rockstar has said the matter is an unfortunate case of people believing the opinions of anonymous posters on message boards and that the company cares passionately about the people working for it.
"As for the stories spreading around the internet, yes we have noticed them," the company said in a Q&A session with fans in its official site. "Unfortunately, this is a case of people taking the opinions of a few anonymous posters on message boards as fact.
"No business is ever perfect, but Rockstar Games is a tight knit team made up of around 900 supremely talented and motivated professionals, many of whom have worked here for a very long time.
"We’re saddened if any former members of any studio did not find their time here enjoyable or creatively fulfilling and wish them well with finding an environment more suitable to their temperaments and needs, but the vast majority of our company are focused solely on delivering cutting edge interactive entertainment.
"We’ve always cared passionately about the people working here, and have always tried to maintain a supportive creative environment. There is simply no way Rockstar could continue to produce such large scale, high quality games without this.
"That being said, making great games is very challenging, which is why we have and will continue to try to keep hold of some of the best talent in the industry and support them in every way we can,"
Earlier this month the International Game Developers Association also commented on the claims, saying that these kinds of events raised an important awareness of quality of life issues within the industry at a time when economic factors could be leading to increased pressure on businesses.