Rockstar San Diego Working Conditions Attacked

09 Jan 2010 at 19:14:31 by Tim McDonald

Allegedly "horrendous" working conditions at Rockstar San Diego have led to the wives of employees publicly posting about said conditions.

In a blog posted up on Gamasutra, the "Determined Devoted Wives of Rockstar San Diego employees" claim that employees are working long hours six days a week, with cut benefits and salary raises not matching inflation, while being told that "Rockstar games [do] not generate money."

The comments below the post echo what's written there, with one commenter claiming it's "EXACTLY the reason I left Rockstar San Diego in February 2009," while others have been "thinking about writing a letter like this," and another wishes they had written it as it's "all true." Another talks of "people getting performance warnings for not working 11hrs+ a day" while yet another speaks of the "temporary appointment of a new studio president who spent thousands at a time on drinking outings, only to give up the position after a few short months."

The letter also claims that, if the situation doesn't change, "preparation will be made to take legal action against Rockstar San Diego."

Rockstar San Diego is the studio behind Midnight Club and Table Tennis, and is currently working on Red Dead Redemption, which we think looks spiffing, although comments on the blog post state otherwise.

This mirrors the EA Spouse controversy from around five years ago, when EA was similarly accused of disgraceful working conditions by the anonymous wife of an employee, and the surrounding furore appeared to create genuine change.

At this stage, we don't know whether these accusations are true, or whether it's a sick joke of some sort. We'll investigate and let you know when we find out more.