Just yesterday, Grand Theft Auto 6 developer Rockstar Games informed its employees they would be returning to the office full-time and scrapping remote work. Those employees have responded to the mandate, and they’re not happy. Some GTA 6 devs are even stating they fear a return to the “toxic ‘crunch’ practices” for which Rockstar was known during the development of games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA V.

GTA 6 devs accuse Rockstar of broken promises

Rockstar has been trying to encourage its employees to return to the office since last year. When the developer tried to enforce a transition to a three-day office week in 2023, Rockstar claimed “this isn’t our first step to 5 days a week. No one wants to go back to the old way of working.” Now the GTA 6 devs are accusing Rockstar of breaking their promises following yesterday’s mandate that employees return to office full-time.

An anonymous employee told VGC that Rockstar is removing a remote working lifeline that allowed them to “balance care responsibilities, manage disabilities, and relocate as we need.” They continued:

Rockstar is snatching away that lifeline without a second thought for the workers who’ll be impacted most. After so many broken promises we now fear management may even be paving the way for a return to toxic ‘crunch’ practices. Senior leadership need to rethink their reckless decision making and engage with their staff to find an arrangement that works for everyone.

Rockstar had gained quite a reputation for its “toxic crunch practices” during previous games. Many of the accusations against the company involved 100-hour weeks, mandatory overtime, and fear tactics. As such, previous reports had claimed GTA 6 would be delayed until 2025 to avoid those crunch conditions.

However, mandatory overtime was a concern for another anonymous employee who said “just one of my concerns is being forced to work late hours in the office to maintain contact with global teams when before we could log on from home to attend late meetings.” The concerns have meant that the IWGB Game Workers Union has also issued a statement condemning Rockstar’s actions:

The workers in the IWGB Game Workers Union at Rockstar are pushing for transparency over pay and promotions, a healthy and inclusive workplace culture, and work life balance centred around what each worker needs. It is unacceptable that Rockstar leadership have gone back on their word time and time again and have ignored the workers’ requests for basic working conditions.

Workers across the industry are done with letting executives make reckless and harmful decisions and the Rockstar workers are showing us the start of what’s to come if they’re continually ignored. There’s no better time than now to join our union and push for this to be the healthy and sustainable games industry we know it can be.

IWGB Game Workers Union chairman Austin Kelmore

Rockstar is yet to comment.

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It looks like all the GTA 6 leaks have taken their toll on Rockstar Games‘ management, who is now mandating that employees return to office full-time. According to a report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, an email went out to GTA 6 staff earlier this week, informing them that the decision to return to office was made for “productivity and security reasons.”

GTA 6 hackers previously gained access to Rockstar’s Slack channels

The email in question was sent out by Rockstar’s head of publishing Jenn Kolbe. Schreier, who saw a copy of the email, says that Kolbe mentioned that there were “tangible benefits” of not working remotely. “Making these changes now puts us in the best position to deliver the next Grand Theft Auto at the level of quality and polish we know it requires, along with a publishing roadmap that matches the scale and ambition of the game,” she added.

As GTA 6 enters a critical phase in development, it seems that Rockstar has become increasingly weary of the leaks. The infamous Rockstar hack that first leaked GTA 6 lifted content from the company’s Slack channel. The cloud-based communication platform is one of the most popular communication tools used by companies with employees working remotely.

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Following Sony’s revision of PS5 sales forecast, analysts say that they expect the company to set PS5 Pro‘s release date in time for the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6. The highly anticipated game is expected to release in 2025, and analysts reckon that the PS5 Pro will launch later in 2024.

PS5 Pro release date may take advantage of the buzz surrounding GTA 6

Speaking to CNBC, Serkan Toto of Tokyo-based consultancy Kantan Games said that “there seems to be a broad consensus in the game industry that Sony is indeed preparing a launch of a PS5 Pro in the second half of 2024.” Toto added that “Sony will want to make sure to have a great piece of hardware ready when GTA 6 hits in 2025, a launch that will be a shot in the arm for the entire gaming industry.”

Sony recently said that as the PS5 enters the latter part of its life cycle, it expects sales to slow down. The PS5 Pro has been rumored for a while but Sony has remain tight-lipped — neither confirming nor denying the rumors.

Omdia analyst George Jijiashvili told CNBC that despite declining sales and the impending PS5 Pro, Sony is unlikely to cut the price of the base console.

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GTA 5‘s Michael voice actor Ned Luke has pushed back on claims that GTA 6‘s inclusion of Lucia has anything to do with “wokeness.” Luke suggested in a new interview that Lucia will play an important role in the game and pointed out that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen an important female character in the Grand Theft Auto series.

GTA 6’s Lucia is “hard,” says Ned Luke

Appearing in IGN’s GTFM video series, Luke opined that people complaining about Rockstar Games going “woke” based on a single trailer for GTA 6 are “clowns” and that Lucia “looks good” in the reveal.

“Lucia’s hard, man. In the trailer, she looked good,” Luke said. “You get a lot of these clowns out here going, ‘Rockstar’s going woke, they’re caving into the wokeness of the world.’ First of all, there’s been other female protagonists in the past, but not in something as huge as this.”

Rockstar Games hasn’t detailed GTA 6 or its characters, and has yet to reveal who Lucia is portrayed by. However, fans have come up with a convincing theory that she’s portrayed by actress Manni L. Perez, who’s no stranger to Grand Theft Auto or its team of voice actors including Luke.

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Rockstar Games‘ fans have been trying to figure out who GTA 6‘s Lucia is portrayed by, and think they’ve found the answer. There have been a lot of speculations surrounding the game’s protagonists, with Rockstar Games keeping things tightly under wraps, but it does look like fans have a somewhat compelling case here.

Rumored GTA 6 Lucia actress is no stranger to Grand Theft Auto

Without further ado, fans are convinced that actress Manni L. Perez is portaying Lucia, and comparison images posted over on GTA Forums certainly do bear a striking resemblance. Perez has previously lent her voice to GTA V, and she does sound an awful lot like Lucia from the official GTA 6 trailer.

Add to the above Perez’s admission two years ago that she signed a non-disclosure agreement for a major project as well as the fact that she appeared in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit alongside the likes of Roger Clark, Steven Ogg, and Ned Luke — all of whom are known for their work with Rockstar Games in high-profile roles. All these things considered, we can see why fans think they’ve found their answer.

Do you think Lucia is portrayed by Perez? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Hackers have leaked GTA 5 source code and a plethora of content from GTA 6 and Bully 2. It’s unclear if the content dump comes from the infamous Rockstar Games hack, but it has been suggested that one of the individuals who leaked the hacked material is known to the developer, who has sued them multiple times in the past.

One of GTA 6 hackers was recently sentenced to an indefinite hospital stay

The content dump, the entirety of which can be found on Reddit, comes less than a week after one of the teens behind the GTA 6 hack was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after they continued to commit cyber crimes on bail, and expressed their desire to continue down that path if released.

Leaked content includes GTA 5’s canceled single-player DLC, a GTA 6 PC script as well as miscellaneous game content like lock-picking mechanic, Bully 2 concept and ideas, and even some content purportedly from canceled PS3 exclusive, Agent.

It’s unclear when Rockstar Games will respond considering we’re in a holiday period. Hackers have targeted several companies in recent weeks alone, including Insomniac Games and Ubisoft. The former suffered a devastating hack whereas the latter managed to thwart the hacking attempt.

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A teenage GTA 6 hacker has been handed an “indefinite” hospital sentence where he may remain for life depending on a doctor’s verdict. 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj from Oxford, U.K. was one of the Lapsus$ group teens arrested for the ransomware attack on Rockstar Games.

GTA 6 hacker is considered high risk to the public

Kurtaj was declared autistic and deemed unfit to stand trial. Despite numerous court orders barring him from misusing the internet while he was on bail, he continued to have a penchant for hacking. In fact, he was on bail confined to a hotel room under police protection when he proceeded to hack Nvidia and British telecommunications company BT using an Amazon Firestick, the hotel TV, and a cellphone.

Now, a judge has deemed him a risk to society and has sentenced him to a “secure hospital,” per the BBC, where he will remain for life unless doctors determine that he no longer poses a danger. The BBC further reports that Kurtaj became violent while in custody, and there were reports of injury and property damage.

The court ordered Kurtaj’s mental health assessment, with health officials reporting that he remained highly motivated to continue hacking and openly expressed his desire to continue committing cyber crime if released.

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Former Rockstar Games developer Mike York has said that GTA 6‘s debut trailer featured in-game scenes as opposed to pre-rendered cinematics. York is a veteran animator who spent over five years at Rockstar working on games like GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2.

Former Rockstar Games animator breaks down GTA 6 trailer

In a video published to his YouTube channel, York provided a breakdown of the trailer and revealed why GTA games take so long to make.

“This is an in-game cutscene,” York said. “A lot of the games you see are done with, like, cinematics, and they cut to a scene, and it’s not all in-game. It’s kind of pre-rendered, and then you see it, but everything you see in a GTA game is all done in-game.”

York went on to stress that “every single” cutscene fans see is in-game and said that any building players see in the trailer they’ll be able get into, climb, and jump off of. “This game is very elaborate,” York continued. “That’s why it takes them so long to make.”

York left Rockstar Games in 2017. He’s also had brief stints at Sony, where he worked on Uncharted 2 and God of War Ragnarok.

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Lawrence Sullivan, better known as the real-life “Florida Joker,” has responded to GTA 6’s debut trailer, in which a character evidently inspired by him makes an appearance. The highly anticipated trailer was released earlier this week, and fans quickly noticed that it contained quite a few references to real-life events and persons in Florida, one of whom is the “Florida Joker.”

Florida Joker wants to talk to GTA 6 developers

For those not familiar with Sullivan, he became famous in 2017 following an arrest and a subsequent mugshot of him showcasing his facial tattoos and hair inspired by DC Comics’ Joker. He continued to land in trouble with the law several times over the years. When GTA 6’s trailer premiered, it didn’t take long for viewers to point out the reference.

Yesterday, in a now-deleted TikTok video, Sullivan himself noticed the similarities and told Rockstar Games “we gotta talk.”

We’re unclear why Sullivan deleted the video and if he seriously wants to get in touch with Rockstar Games or not, but there’s speculation that he’s looking to get paid for the use of his likeness.

In 2016, actress and singer Lindsay Lohan lost a lawsuit against Rockstar Games for what she claimed was the use of her likeness for GTA V character Lacey Jonas.

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Rockstar Games debuted the first Grand Theft Auto VI trailer last night, releasing it early in response to a recent leak. The studio also made big promises about the upcoming open-world crime sandbox game. This includes comments that it will be “the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet.”

Rockstar makes big promises for GTA 6

“Grand Theft Auto VI continues our efforts to push the limits of what’s possible in highly immersive, story-driven open-world experiences,” said Rockstar founder Sam Houser in a statement. “We’re thrilled to be able to share this new vision with players everywhere.” The press release did not go into specifics about how the game achieves this. However, Rockstar’s last major release, Red Dead Redemption 2, showcased the company’s interest in immersive, narrative-driven, open-world games.  

The press release goes on to describe how GTA 6 will see players return to Vice City in the fictional state of Leonida. Fans last visited the Miami-inspired metropolis in 2002’s GTA: Vice City. However, while the 2002 game takes place in 1986, GTA 6 opts for a contemporary setting. Vice City is also the last of the 3D-era settings to return in an HD-era game.

2013’s Grand Theft Auto V only featured one of San Andreas’ three major cities. However, its map was larger by several orders of magnitude, depicting Los Santos on a larger scale and in greater detail. The press release essentially confirms that the new game will do the same for Vice City. Scenes from the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer also indicate its map extends beyond the city limits into an Everglades-inspired swampland.

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