An October 2018 Kotaku investigation into working conditions at Rockstar Games painted an ugly picture, with several developers reporting long hours of punitive crunches and the term "death march" being used to describe their harshness. Rockstar himself admitted to the outlet that the situation was imperfect and came to understand that the culture of the crunch was "not sustainable."

In a follow-up report released today, Kotaku said that Rockstar's changes seem to be having a positive impact on the company. While the changes at the top have been noted, with co-founder Dan Hauser leaving the company earlier this year, the heads of Rockstar's studios in California and Lincoln, England, have also been replaced, as have other executives who allegedly contributed to a culture of negativity. One employee interviewed said that management is "running the company like a company," while another said, "Overall, the culture seems to be healthier."

The company's management team has also been replaced by a new director of the Rockstar studio in Lincoln, California, and a new director of the Rockstar studio in Lincoln, England.

Management also told employees that it wants to better manage the crunch in the game going forward through better planning and a technology pipeline. In an email obtained by the site, Jennifer Kolbe, head of publishing, said Rockstar is "working on many initiatives in all areas of the company," including flexible scheduling, management and leadership training, anonymous employee surveys, and overall plans for the year, including improved communication.

"We have taken conscious steps to improve our approach to game development to reduce the need for overtime. We recognize that there is still much work to be done in this area, and that we can more accurately predict and schedule games and DLC in a way that is more sustainable, yet allows us the creative flexibility to iterate on the incredibly ambitious and complex games we create." We will continue to take steps to ensure that we do so."

One very interesting approach to reducing the impact of the crunch could be seen in "Grand Theft Auto," which Kotaku is reporting as Rockstar's next game. According to the report, management is considering making "GTA 6" smaller than previous titles in the series and filling it with post-launch updates. At least in theory, scaling back the initial release would relieve the pressure to complete it on time.

While this sounds like a move in the right direction, it is clear that this is the beginning of a process, not the end: one employee said, "It feels like we are just getting started." It remains to be seen whether this new direction will hold up in the long run, especially if the development of the new "GTA" will be in full swing.

After all, it's relatively easy to keep things cool during a lull in the action, but priorities can easily change when big-money deadlines loom. For example, CD Projekt promised a more "humane" approach to late-stage development with a "no-mandatory crunch policy" in mid-2019, but in January 2020, while "we will strive to limit the crunch as much as possible" to complete "Cyberpunk 2077" He stated that crunch will be necessary in order to It's hard to make a game.