Hey! I just noticed that my PS4 countdown timer is indicating that the game unlocks at 9 PM on Thursday evening. This is my first year living on the west coast. Woot!
Even on reddit, you’d have to purposefully click around to see something, unless some jackhole posts in a random non-gaming related thread.
Which happens all the time, so you have a fine point.
Surprisingly, my Amazon pre-ordered RDR2 is actually coming on Friday.
Frankly, it’s Russian roulette at this point to read any RDR threads or related commentary.
I ordered the PS4 Pro bundle, and all I know at this point is that it’s “ineligible for release date delivery” and it “may not arrive on release day”. I have family visiting this weekend anyway, so not as big a deal as it might otherwise have been.
Edit: Chatted w/ an Amazon rep, and they told me that the PS4 Pro Red Dead bundle is marked as “Qualified for Release Date Delivery”, which I assume means they intend to deliver it on 10/26. Thought I’d share just in case anyone else here ordered the bundle.
Not sure if it should be mentioned here or in the Games Journalism thread, but Jason Schreier also lookend into that topic.
This account, a peek inside one of the most secretive companies in gaming, is based on interviews with 34 current and 43 former employees, over phone calls and e-mails and texts. Last Wednesday, Rockstar told current employees that they were allowed to speak to journalists (so long as they gave HR a heads up), but almost all of the people who spoke to me for this story requested anonymity. Some said they feared retaliation for being candid about their negative experiences at Rockstar, and some said they were worried about coming across as dishonest for sharing positive stories.
In addition, Rockstar provided us interviews with 12 current employees over group video chats as well as its head of publishing, Jennifer Kolbe, who oversees all of Rockstar’s studios.
The tale of Red Dead Redemption 2 ’s development is complicated and sometimes contradictory. For some people at Rockstar, it was a satisfying project, an ambitious game that took reasonable hours and far less crunch than the company’s previous games. Many current employees say they’re happy to work at Rockstar and love being able to help make some of the best games in the world. Others described Red Dead 2 as a difficult experience, one that cost them friendships, family time, and mental health. Nobody interviewed said they had worked 100-hour weeks—that would equate to seven 14-hour days—but many said their average weekly hours came close to 55 or 60, which would make for six 10-hour days. Most current and former Rockstar employees said they had been asked or felt compelled to work nights and weekends. Some were on hourly contracts and got paid for overtime, but many were salaried and did not receive any compensation for their extra hours. Those who are still at the company hope that their 2018 bonuses—expected to be significant if Red Dead 2 does well—will help make up for that.
I pre-downloaded for the Xbox today. No glitches.
Information on PS 4Early access content.
Good Polygon Article on why the Western is the perfect Open world genre.
Long article. Schreier is doing the closest thing to real journalism that video games press does. Some of the big money-quotes:
Personal experiences may differ, but anecdotes from current and former employees paint a consistent picture: Rockstar Games is a complicated and sometimes difficult company, one where working “hard” is equated to working for as many hours as possible. Many told Kotaku they felt pressured to stay at the office at night and even come in on weekends if they wanted to succeed. Despite Dan Houser’s quote that “No one, senior or junior, is ever forced to work hard,” people who have worked and currently work at Rockstar say that overtime is mandatory. In conversations, several used the phrase “culture of fear,” with some saying that they were worried about lawsuits or other retaliation for speaking up.
For some people working on Red Dead Redemption 2 , crunch started as early as 2016. For others at Rockstar, crunch periods started in the fall of 2017, a year before the game’s release date. Even when the company wasn’t in official crunch mode, dozens of current and former employees say they’ve felt compelled to stay late for a variety of reasons. “Rockstar pressures employees to put in overtime in several direct and indirect ways,” said one current Rockstar developer. “Coming in on weekends is perhaps the only way to show you are dedicated and care. So you can be very efficient and hard-working during the week, but if you don’t show up on the weekend, you’re accused of not doing your share and will be constantly harassed.”
For some, crunching on Red Dead Redemption 2 was a choice, one that several proud current employees told me they made because they wanted to help ensure that the game was as good as possible. Many have argued about the ethics of voluntary crunch—and the pressures it creates on one’s co-workers—but quite a few Rockstar staff insisted that their overtime had not been mandatory. They were workaholics, they told me. They wanted to put in that extra push to make Red Dead 2 great.
A second Rockstar NYC developer also said they reached out because of Houser’s comments. “While nobody I know worked 100 hour weeks, many of us worked 60-80 hour weeks for the past one or two years,” they said. “To hear one of the heads of the company effectively go on record as saying none of that ever happened has been a huge blow to morale at a time when we should be celebrating.”
There’s a lot more in there…
Oh god, we were so close.
I agree. I am hoping someone starts a “Rockstar Games: Labor and Corporate Practices” thread so we can just talk about the game.
I appreciate the work he’s doing here, it’s an important topic. But if I could be allowed to be a selfish, unsympathetic prick for a bit - I don’t really care. Honestly. I’ve had to work very hard and for many hours at several points in my life, it’s not awesome. It sucks, and I feel for anyone that’s gone through that. But I really don’t care how long it takes to make a video game I’m looking forward to, same as how I don’t care how long it took to film a TV show or movie I really like, or write a book I love. Apologies to anyone that offends, honestly.
To join in, can we have the dialectic about Rockstars’ corporate practices occur in another thread? I really, really want to talk about the game itself here. A game I am very excited to play. I never pre-download. I never get excited for “opening day”.
Man, I hope my game arrives on Friday. I may come to regret going boxed copy.
I can’t remember if I mentioned here or not, but I nearly opted for my Best Buy pre-order to be shipped “release day” but I’ve never used that service from them before, and I live in a pretty small town so I was really extra concerned it would be … like not Friday, but Monday instead or something. Yikes. So I opted for in-store pick up. It’s a PITA and a 40 min one-way drive but I’m hoping I can grab it Thursday night and have it installed and ready to roll for after work Friday. Squeee!!!
Pre-installed on the Xbox One today. 87.9 GB. I am positively excited.
There better be ZERO spoilers posted here until at least 6 months after the PC release! I am warning you all! angry fist shaking
Look, dude, we know how this is going to go. I’m going to carelessly throw out something I find awesome, you or some other folks living vicariously through us are going to get angry about the spoiler, words will be spoken, some likely regrettable, we’ll all cry and eventually heal and move on. So, preemptively: I’m sorry. Kind of.
I refuse to play it Friday. DM’ing on Saturday night and those people would probably be irate if I was like ‘busy RDR2’ at them.
Unless they’re all doing it too. Huh.
I’d give them a call. I may well venture into “unbathed; ordering food and sleep deprived” -mode this weekend.