Rockstar Games, a division of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., will ask employees to return to the office five days a week starting in April as the video game maker enters the final stages of development on its next game, the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI.
In an email to staff on Wednesday, reviewed by Bloomberg, Jenn Kolbe, Rockstar’s editorial manager, said the decision was made for productivity and security reasons. The company has faced several security breaches, including a massive dump of the first footage of the new Grand Theft Auto and a first trailer leaked in December.
Kolbe wrote that the company has also seen “tangible benefits” from in-person working. “Making these changes now puts us in the best position to deliver what’s next Grand Theft Auto at the level of quality and sophistication we know it requires, along with an editorial roadmap that matches the scale and ambition of the game,” he wrote.
Return-to-office mandates have been a hot topic across various industries since the pandemic forced myriad employees to work from home. More recently, many employers have asked staff to return to the office for two or three days a week. A study last month found that remote working had no impact on productivity.
The issue has been particularly controversial among video game workers due to the industry’s volatility and lack of a centralized workforce. Many of the biggest video game hits of 2023, such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 by Insomniac Games, were developed remotely.