Former GTA 6 and RDR 2 developer admits the studio never raised the question of staff cuts – because Rockstar can afford it
Layoffs and restructuring have become a grim routine for the games industry. This week alone, EA closed BioWare, and Xbox announced 3,200 job cuts across its entire division. Rockstar looks far safer by comparison as it prepares to release the massive GTA 6.
At least one ex-dev agrees. Jérémy Hartvick worked as an open-world designer on Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA 6 before leaving Rockstar in 2020. He told the Kiwi Talkz podcast that downsizing was never a topic inside the studio.
I never heard the question of, we need to see if we need to downsize, or if we can afford it. Rockstar can afford it.
According to him, what matters for staff is something else entirely.
The question is whether you can meet the expectations, and if you don't, then you might not last. But otherwise it's not a question of money.
Sales back up the studio's financial strength. Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 have kept earning steadily since launch, and in September this year GTA 5 landed in the top five digital games on PS5 in Europe.
GTA Online and Red Dead Online bring in even more revenue. Both games have large, dedicated communities that keep spending on microtransactions.
Hartvick puts his own exit down to personal circumstances and the sheer amount of work. He comes from continental Europe and lived in Scotland, working at the Rockstar North office in Edinburgh, but needed to be closer to home.
"The quantity of work made it more difficult to be present there," he said of his family. By the time Red Dead Redemption 2 launched, GTA 6 was still several years away – eight, as it turned out. Hartvick wondered whether he was up for that marathon or wanted to do something else.
Stable funding doesn't shield Rockstar from trouble, though. The studio is currently in an employment tribunal over the sudden dismissal of a number of staff last year, allegedly for spurious reasons. Rockstar is still a corporation, just like EA, Activision, and other major publishers.
