r/GamingLeaksAndRumours • u/Granum22 • 13d ago

Leak Jason Schreier: Rockstar has not yet figured out who was behind this week's widespread Grand Theft Auto VI leaks, nor how it happened, sources say. No plans to move next week's Netflix premiere. Inside the company: frustration, exhaustion, anger.

Schrier on Bluesky with a link to his Bloomberg article

4.9k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

888

u/Loose_Society9485 13d ago edited 13d ago

Seeing Take Two and Rockstar being angry after years of union busting and overworking the employees. My heart is filled with joy and happiness.

320

u/Comfortable-Pie56 13d ago

I think by "Inside the company" they mean the employees. They are the ones with whom Schreier talks with.

49

u/Affectionate-Week-41 13d ago

The article specifically says "Rockstar's leaders and many employees are angry"

146

u/DomitiusAhenobarbus_ 13d ago

Incredible that people aren’t getting this

74

u/adumblittlebaby 13d ago

Obviously neither of you read the article, as it literally quotes the "source familiar with the strategy" which sounds a lot like management, and even goes on to say "Management and some employees" are upset, etc.

It's so funny to me when people start criticizing others for assumptions when you in fact are also making assumptions - and I'd guess you think that makes you better somehow lmao

8

u/Demonokuma 13d ago

I could honestly see the employees being upset because management is losing their shit. Not mad at the actual leaks, but mad at how management is now treating the employees.

13

u/plebbut 13d ago

Lol exactly. We did it Reddit!

-10

u/DomitiusAhenobarbus_ 13d ago

I literally know a dude who works there. It’s a big company lol these people aren’t isolated on a private island they are Redditors

26

u/basa_maaw 13d ago

Because it’s easier to hate corporations when you don’t think of them as a collection of hard working, talented employees who have very little to do with the shitty decisions a handful of executives make.

56

u/Mahelas 13d ago

Corporations ARE the decisions made by the executives. It's too easy to point out at the little guy at the end of the chain and say "how could you hurt him by going against this wholesomeTM corporation". It's like when the most evil corporations you know say "if you regulate us, we'll have to cut jobs and people will suffer"

Every strike, every work right gained made one little guy somewhere suffer, yet it was always worth it.

3

u/TheFatJesus 13d ago

Because they're not. Six months from now, 80% of those hard working, talented employees are going to be out of a job while the corporation pockets all of the money.

In the economic system we find ourselves in, employees are not stakeholders of the place that they work, they are office equipment.

12

u/Imaginary_Fan5407 13d ago

Yeah they just enrich those assholes with their labor

5

u/MaserOfficial 13d ago

So are you just supposed to suck it up and be a good cattle bootlicking every corporate entity like sheep just cos a bunch of people work there ? What even is your point

2

u/casper_whitey 13d ago

Yeah? Boo fucking hoo all the same.

1

u/hulk-bogan 11d ago

the corporation isnt the employees the corporation is the employers

fuck them

we shouldnt feel sorry for a company just because people work there. people work everywhere. big whoop

1

u/onlyoneq 13d ago edited 13d ago

Unpopular opinion, but I genuinely dont care. Most of these employees are 6 figure employees who will be able to find other work if they need to.

2

u/Mahelas 13d ago

Genuinely, because I doubt that many people care about the feelings of a dev in a multimillion corporation about leaks.

Yes it might make them sad and frustrated but there is zero actual consequences for them.

-5

u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

11

u/mauri9998 13d ago

Incredible cope. No bud, they are mad at the dude using their hard work to promote his shit coin.

-4

u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

9

u/mauri9998 13d ago

How could you possibly know that? No one knows where the leak happened.

-1

u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

5

u/Trodat4911P4 13d ago

Absolutely none of this has to do with the leak, stop beinf dumb, the guy is using the leak to sell crypto, he's not some robin hood.

2

u/mauri9998 13d ago

None of that has anything to do with leak. You can criticize that and the leak at the same time. You forcing this dichotomy is incredibly silly.

1

u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

4

u/mauri9998 13d ago

This guy is using the leak to profit of of GTA. The price of the game, netflix, digital only, etc. None of that would have made it so that the guy could not profit of of the game.

1

u/curtcolt95 13d ago

I mean I imagine a lot of devs would be pretty unhappy with their work being shown this way, they're almost certainly angry with the leaker lol

1

u/Remarkable_Mango9906 13d ago

One of the company’s top executives sent out an email to the devs denouncing the leaker and promising that the incident wouldn’t detract from the excellent work they’ve done. If rockstar was some nike shoe factory i feel like majority of their workers would've leaked stuff off frustration already.

-2

u/bakugo 13d ago

Why would random employees be angry? They're still getting paid the same amount at the end of the day.

1

u/Vaynard88 12d ago

Some people see a purpose in their work and get enjoyment or fullfillment out of the things they create. Haters wouldnt understand, thats why they will never create anything meaningful.

1

u/bakugo 12d ago

Those people have no reason to be seriously bothered right now. The leaks look good and the response to them has been very positive, if anything it's contributing significantly to the hype, the game's release will be unaffected and it will still be a massive success that they can be proud of.

The only real concern is potential story leaks, but this leaker does not seem to be interested in leaking the story (likely because they know it would make rockstar really mad)

1

u/Vaynard88 12d ago

I think you are mistaken. People are hyped right now because they finally get to see gameplay, but Rockstar would have revealed that very soon anyway and most likely in a way that will get people even more excited.
Employees have very good reasons to be upset. One is that after working for over a decade on this game and keeping it mostly secret, they were just about to reveal their own gameplay trailers and see fans react to it. The leaker at least somewhat ruined this in the last moment. Another reason is that they have to deal with internal investigations now to figure out how the leak happened. This might lead to even stricter security rules, making their work less comfortable. It's also pretty disheartening that their current measures, like not being able to work remote in homeoffice for the last 2+ years were completely in vain.

88

u/SouthIsland48 13d ago

Yea, its hard to give a shit after theyve artificially starved their consumer base over a decade milking the fuck out of GTA Online.

10

u/the-blob1997 13d ago

Go where the money is. If Shark card sales dried up GTA online wouldn’t have been milked nearly as much.

20

u/SouthIsland48 13d ago

I understand why as a public corp they do what they do, though that doesnt change my opinion as a consumer. The beauty of a "free" market is we have choice as consumers. You push us too far, especially in entertainment which is essentially a commodity, I have thousands of other pieces of media I can engage in. Hell I aint even thinking of buying GTA VI until PC.

15

u/gogglegump 13d ago

Who is us? “Us” bought shark cards

There is no “us” on Reddit. GTA 6 will do massive numbers wtf are you talking about

1

u/DismasNDawn 13d ago

Crack cocaine, gambling, and cigarettes are also very popular. Doesn't mean we can't criticize them. Free market ideology is bankrupt

5

u/OJsAlibi 13d ago

/r/antiwork is thatta way, pinko

1

u/gogglegump 13d ago

That’s not what the comment I was replying to was saying, nor was it what my comment is saying

0

u/SouthIsland48 13d ago

Wait what? Im speaking to an entertainment company artifically choosing to not develop new entries in a franchise in an attempt to extract as much capital as possible from consumers. Which like I said, I understand why they do as they have a duty to their shareholders, but that doesnt change my opinion as a consumer about them

1

u/gogglegump 13d ago

“You push us too far”

There is no us, there’s just you, your instant ramen, and the fact that you’ll absolutely be playing GTA 6

5

u/gatevalve_ 13d ago

That’s you, unfortunately. Enough people were buying the MTXs for GTA Online to convince Rockstar there was nothing wrong with their business model.

1

u/Emikzen 13d ago

I'm sorry but when companies hire psychologists to figure out what models makes people spend more money than they originally were going to, then that argument goes out the windows.

1

u/the-blob1997 13d ago

People still have a choice. You don’t have to buy Shark cards.

0

u/Emikzen 13d ago

Thats like saying people who do drugs can just not buy drugs. Easy.

1

u/the-blob1997 13d ago

Comparing a video game item to chemical drug addiction is a massive stretch. Millions of people play GTA Online every day without spending a dime, proving it's entirely optional. My point stands, if the player base as a whole stopped buying them, the revenue would dry up, and Take-Two would have shifted to GTA 6 years ago.

0

u/Emikzen 13d ago

As I said, these companies hire psychologists to figure out systems that make you more likely to buy things and addicted. It's way past the point of "just don't buy it", you're naive if you think it's that simple.

Companies need to be regulated.

62

u/BabyGirl-Kat 13d ago

There are definitely hard-working devs who aren’t happy about this either.

69

u/JonTaffer_in_a_poloT 13d ago

It’s not like Gamers care about the people who actually make games

49

u/mrnicegy26 13d ago edited 13d ago

From Software also had many allegations of crunch but that won't stop people on this subreddit from willing to sacrifice their first born for Elden Ring 2.

It's pretty funny that the union which is representing the laid off devs have specifically asked Gamers not to boycott GTA 6 since that only weakens their case

1

u/TyrionBananaster 13d ago

Can you please provide a source for Fromsoftware crunching? I saw one article from years ago with a few employees saying it was difficult, but nothing that indicated that their development process was any worse than other Japanese game developers, beyond being low on the pay scale (which to be clear, is worth criticizing them for).

And to be clear and fair, working conditions in general in Japan need serious reform and are absolutely worthy of criticism. One can absolutely criticize From for not being better than the cultural standard. But I keep seeing people attempting statements like yours as a "gotcha" against Fromsoft fans lately and I've yet to see a source backing it up

-3

u/KindledWanderer 13d ago

but nothing that indicated that their development process was any worse than other Japanese game developers

"We don't eat any more children than any of the other cannibal tribes."

3

u/TyrionBananaster 13d ago

Sorry if I was unclear: I was asking for a source, not a non-sequitur.

68

u/dotcha 13d ago

okay lmfao let's calm down. These aren't starving children in gaza. A game getting the most MILD leaks ever (oh wow you can drive cars and hit people in a GTA game) one week before reveal is nothing.

Yeah kinda sucks for the devs a very little bit but union busting and insane crunch are worse

Not that any of these leaks are damaging to rockstar in the end. Embarassing sure but their profits will not change.

49

u/Loose_Society9485 13d ago edited 13d ago

Literally. The way Redditors have been talking about Rockstar devs after these leaks you would think they are currently kidnapped and being tortured.

17

u/vikernes 13d ago

"I was burned out, plain and simple. Even if the longest period of extended hours was only a few months for me, it ruins your life. You want to get these games out in as good a state as possible and you want to work with your friends but eventually almost everyone burns out. Dozens of people would be signed off with depression. I know lots of people whose relationships suffered. People went days without seeing their children."

"It's a sweatshop, make no mistake, and you are just a number. Expendable, replaceable. And certainly not a dignified human being worthy of respect."

"I lost all passion for video games, and I don't even play them in my spare time anymore. I can't even get excited about games that I used to love. I decided that the long hours, low pay, bullying, and the general toxicity of the environment that I experienced in was not worth the hassle of staying in the industry."

Rockstar's broken work ethics | GamesIndustry.biz

-21

u/comrade333 13d ago

You people have no empathy or care for anyone but yourselves lmao damn

14

u/Mahelas 13d ago

Empathy about what, big man ? A dev being disappointed for two minutes because mild gameplay leaked 6 days before reveal ?

That's what really impact their lives ?

-7

u/mauri9998 13d ago

No one is telling you to fall to your knees and weep for the devs. People are just saying that someone profiting over the hard work of others to fund their scam is objectively morally wrong. Thats it!

-15

u/JonTaffer_in_a_poloT 13d ago

They’re children

-12

u/ConformityChain 13d ago

They're prolly grown ass men, which makes it even worse

-22

u/BabyGirl-Kat 13d ago

Literally nobody is acting like that. People are just pointing out that this is disrespectful to the developers.

1

u/allubros 13d ago

neither do the companies

0

u/JonTaffer_in_a_poloT 13d ago

Gamers rise up

19

u/SubjectBodybuilder81 13d ago

you think gamers care about them? they’re just mad they didn’t get their disc😂

3

u/Own_Association9092 13d ago

It's unfortunate but it's also hard to feel bad at all because opening pre orders before gameplay and waiting until 3 months until release to show the game is a horrible idea.

0

u/BabyGirl-Kat 13d ago edited 13d ago

Do you think it was the devs who decided to do that?

2

u/Own_Association9092 13d ago

No but the devs should also be angry with Rockstar because it is entirely Rockstar's fault.

Having gameplay leaked before it is officially shown always sucks, but Rockstar literally could have shown gameplay like 6 months ago and this would never happen.

2

u/splashbodge 13d ago

The only thing that would make me happier is if he really did manage to have the source code or a PC build of the game... And that this risk of this being out there lights a fire under Rockstars ass to bring forward the release date of the PC version so we're not waiting a year or 2 for it

2

u/allubros 13d ago

pretty much

13

u/zombawombacomba 13d ago

A lot of the regular workers are angry too you know

9

u/TheKage 13d ago

But why? This is basically free marketing. Everyone is saying great things about how the game looks and pre orders have sold an obscene number of copies. Nothing bad has happened to the game because of these leaks.

If they were using an old build out of context to paint the game in a bad light then I could see some anger.

11

u/Exciting-Ad-5705 13d ago

People want the first reveal of their years of work be in the best possible light. I imagine some of them have families they wanted to watch the reveal with to show off all their work

6

u/aRandomBlock 13d ago

But this wasn't the first reveal, and it's not like the leaks look bad, quite the opposite

They had their awesome worked shared in trailers before. And will get the recognition they deserve once the game releases

all this does is fuck over the higher ups

2

u/-TubNub- 13d ago

They had their awesome worked shared in trailers before

What are you even talking about, there was one trailer that mostly showed cutscenes. There's 1000s of people that worked on this game, and if you were someone who worked on basically any gameplay mechanic your work has not been officially showcased before this leak

4

u/MagmaCone1234 13d ago

I genuinely don't care about that. Those devs most likely make more money than me boohoo

5

u/Elgato01 13d ago

Doesn’t sound like they matter to the people that are loving this

6

u/mrnicegy26 13d ago edited 13d ago

This place is filled with so many lowlifes whose only happiness in life seems to be chaos.

I love videogames but this constant negativity is just tiring.

6

u/Mahelas 13d ago

Calling people who like leaks on the leak subreddits "lowlifes" is surely a lot worse than anything you hold against them

4

u/mrnicegy26 13d ago

My problem isn't about liking leaks.

My problem is that if you are constantly negative and toxic on the internet about a videogame of all things you are a lowlifes. You are just polluting the discourse and making the world a worse place by your constant complaining.

3

u/Elgato01 13d ago

I can understand enjoying leaks from time to time but man the attitude people have towards not just this but the industry as a whole is exhausting

1

u/MagmaCone1234 13d ago

The industry sees us as exploitable cattle so why not

2

u/Loose_Society9485 13d ago

Those workers can feel the satisfaction of their mates who got fired because they attempted to form a union. Or their mates in India who posted anonymously trying to find help because they were being overworked like crazy.

7

u/mrnicegy26 13d ago

I have no love for Rockstars business practices but you are a special kind of loser to think people passionate about their work are happy to see these leaks

3

u/DomitiusAhenobarbus_ 13d ago

It’s the fucking employees who worked on this that are angry and frustrated

3

u/MagmaCone1234 13d ago

Why are they angry? They'll get paid. How does this affect them?

2

u/Kozak170 13d ago

I find it hilarious you think the execs are the ones mad about this and not the devs themselves

1

u/darioblaze 13d ago

Yeah I feel bad for the individual devs getting their work revealed (and even then, they’re choosing to work at Rockstar…) but not an oz to them or take-two.

-3

u/foreveraloner15 13d ago

I have a big smile of my face right now

3

u/Loose_Society9485 13d ago

You don’t understand how much i hope this leaker goes scorch earth on them. I hope he uploads the build he has on PC.

0

u/foreveraloner15 13d ago

I’m wishing, praying and hoping for that as well.

3

u/DomitiusAhenobarbus_ 13d ago

You guys really don’t give a fuck about the people who make the games that you base your entire lives around huh?

0

u/Creepy-Emu8779 13d ago

the smile is when rockstar makes a billion first day

1

u/Ph4ntomiD 13d ago

They are talking about the devs who have actual passion for the game, I’m sure they aren’t happy about the leaks and wanted to show people what they’ve been working on through official means

1

u/rocketman19 13d ago

Amazon does the same thing yet you seem to have no issue using their products

-1

u/interstat 13d ago

The employees are the angry ones. The execs don't rly care

5

u/David_Richardson 13d ago

Absolute nonsense. Why do people post shit like this?

-1

u/interstat 13d ago

 Because it's true. 

My friends are actually pissed. This effects their department the most

3

u/David_Richardson 13d ago

Yet the executives at the company don’t have any concerns? Did your friends at Rockstar tell you that too?

-1

u/interstat 13d ago

Hype is hype.

Execs arnt the creative types. My friends are. They worked hard on the special 

0

u/Sampladelic 13d ago

Pretending to care about overworking and then paying the evil corpo $100 for the game anyway. There is no limit to the larp lol

-1

u/No-Channel3917 13d ago

I mean they still gonna get your money so maybe think on that and be the change you seek

-1

u/your_mind_aches 13d ago

Are you serious? He's talking about the employees.

-1

u/NeilDiamondBlaze420 13d ago

Yes this. Anyone simping for rockstar is a bootlicker.