Worst studio ever. - Anonymous employee Rockstar Games Employee Review

1.0
Nov 3, 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

It's in Carlsbad so the weather is amazing and if you like the beach, it's minutes away. The building is nice.

Cons

Massive OT, zero work life balance, unreasonable demands on employees, and horrible upper management that will fire you with no warning. Basically, if there's any indication that you aren't a yes man, they'll get rid of you. I've been in the industry for over 10 years and I can safely say that this studio is by far and away, the worst one I've ever had the misfortune of working at. Upper management treats everyone like cattle and there's no concern over the well being or happiness of the employees. Unfortunately, there's not much else in this area so you're trapped unless you're willing to move. I had high hopes when I first started. All that is now gone.

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5.0
Apr 30, 2026
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Innovation and technology is the best

Cons

Hectic days and crunching is bad

2
2.0
Jun 26, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

-The main pros of working here are there are many talented folks who are passionate about what they do. -Free lunch and work events were always pretty fun - A once in a lifetime opportunity to work on the biggest games of all time.

Cons

Rockstar takes advantage of the passionate people they have working for them. They use the brand as an excuse to not treat their employees with any dignity or respect. It's also worth mentioning that microagressions and misogyny is a bigger problem than what's being reported here. There were many times where I felt like my voice wasn't heard because of it. Leadership is also a the source of a lot of friction. Many of them are out of touch and let people who have worked their for a long time get away with abusing their direct reports and other lower on the totum pole colleagues. There are people who work here that have been reportedly for unprofessional behavior multiple times but don't receive any serious pushback from leadership. It's a very cliquey, fear based environment masked behind a fake sense of a forward thinking company. There's a lot of information withheld from people who are directly impacted by it, which eventually caused me to mistrust the company and leadership. I have mixed feelings because I enjoyed working on the games and there are many talent people who are being held back by a company that refuses to think differently.

1
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