Ex-Rockstar employee, Job Stauffer, has responded on Twitter to the recent claims that current Rockstar employees working on Red Dead Redemption 2 have been working 100-hour weeks.
In a recent interview with New York Magazine, Rockstar’s co-founder Dan Houser commented on the demanding work schedule the team has been a part of in the run up to Red Dead Redemption 2’s release. He suggested that the development team was “working 100-hour weeks” in preparation for the game’s release.
After the news broke and discussions about crunch began to circulate, Houser responded to clarify his statement by saying, “we obviously don’t expect anyone else to work this way. Across the whole company, we have some senior people who work very hard purely because they’re passionate about a project, or their particular work, and we believe that passion shows in the games we release. But that additional effort is a choice, and we don’t ask or expect anyone to work anything like this.”
Now, Stauffer, who left Rockstar nearly a decade ago, has commented on the claims.
Responding to Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, Stauffer tweeted that “during the GTA IV era, it was like working with a gun to your head 7 days a week. “Be here Saturday & Sunday too, just in case Sam or Dan come in, they want to see everyone working as hard as them.” He also descried a time in which he was “put on notice” for not coming into work while suffering from the flu.
Stauffer then went on to describe the job as “the most ruthlessly competitive and intense work environment imaginable.”
You can see Stauffer’s Twitter for his full comments, or Dan Houser’s clarification of his original comments for the full story. If any further clarifications are released, we’ll update you here.
