Rockstar Games reviews

Long hours. Sometimes people leave before everything is fixed and others need to stay around while these people are hunted down so they can fix the problems.

The rumors are true. You will be treated like a slave. Project is first, your life is second or third or eleventh. Crunch for show is the norm. You are forced to be there long hours even when there is nothing to do. Everybody then panics and things have to be done for yesterday. Terrible environment, everybody is frustrated. We made the most successful game in the world and everybody was miserable! Get ready to work long hours/weekends for months or years. You will get aggressive emails demanding you to work 6 days a week as a minimum. You will be threatened to be fired if you don't work every weekend and 12 hours a day. Everything is kept in secret so you don't know when the game is supposed to be done and stay late. Then deadlines are pushed and the crunch is extended for another 6 months. This can go on for years. Extremely passive aggressive managers that treat you like a new guy working at McDonalds even if you are very skilled or senior. All managers have this "you should feel grateful that you work here" attitude. People hate them with passion. Everybody is afraid of Sam. Everybody is walking on eggshells waiting for him to explode. Managers hide from him what is really going on in the project so he doesn't explode again. Culture of fear. You will get fired if you don't come on the weekend. You will get sued if you talk badly about us. You will get sued or fired for everything! Constant feeling of "something really bad is about to happen". My health suffered from it. Managers treat you badly and are extremely moody. Sam screams at them and they scream at the people below them until it reaches you. Horrible, horrible atmosphere. Some managers are abusive to the point of illegality but are protected by management. Managers treat people who leave Rockstar as traitors or losers. HR is on Rockstar's side. You feel trapped. You hear horrible stories happening at other Rockstar studios all the time but nothing changes. Really bad technology. RAGE engine is terrible. Crappy tools that are very limiting. Feeling of having to work handcuffed. Things are not automated enough and are done by hand by people that have to stay late. Brute force is the norm. Wouldn't work here again and i don't recommend it to anyone. Forget the prestige. It's not worth it.