Rockstar Games Reviews

Pros

This is for the San Diego office. You get to work on a Rockstar Game, which is a huge career and resume boost. The people overall are friendly. They cater food during crunches. Benefits are not bad. Depending on the team directors/leads are pretty hands off and trust you to do your work at your own direction.

Cons

Cheap. You’ll get an offer, you’ll start working at the studio. You’ll put Rockstar Games on your resume. Eventually headhunters on LinkedIn will see this. They’ll contact you with possible positions in Orange County/LA, which have similar cost of living to San Diego. You’ll then ask them the salary range which they legally have to provide in California, and you’ll realize you are getting totally screwed by Rockstar who could be paying you 20-50k less than competing studios. You’ll get promised astronomical bonuses at project completion that fall short, so don’t believe anything managers tell you about these bonuses. The yearly salary increases are pathetic and don’t even cover inflation. The company employed and protected sexual predator(s) at management level in the past, although that seems to have changed in the past year or two. The studio isn’t that diverse, ESPECIALLY at management/lead level, but this is industry wide and not specific to Rockstar. Work on a game or two here and use the experience to get a better paying job somewhere else. That resume leverage/career boost is the main reason I am giving a 4 star rating, for everything else it’s really a 2-3 star.

Pros

I've worked at several AAA studios and initially came to Rockstar almost out of desperation, not necessarily because I was dying to work there. At the time there was a ton of negative press surrounding R*, mainly regarding the crunch and bro culture during the development of Red Dead Redemption. My final interview was with the now ex-studio head who assured me that the recent Kotaku article was dramatic, etc etc, but now that I've been here a while and talked with a lot of the people here, that wasn't true. It WAS bad here and I'm glad I dodged that bullet and started working here after changes started rolling in. A lot of the "bad eggs" in leadership and elsewhere have left or been removed. The R* I've seen since day 1 has been incredibly inclusive and empowering, revealing career advancement opportunities that I would've waited years to see (if I was lucky) at other studios. My leads have always been there for me and there's a wealth of knowledge to tap into here. At the start of the pandemic and ever since then, R* leadership has cared for us and made sure we had everything we needed to work from home. We received a stipend to spend on WFH equipment, multiple care packages in the mail, benefits improved, the list goes on and on. The more I share with my spouse the more "envious" they get, wishing they had a job that went to such lengths. It doesn't feel shallow or empty either, like we're just being buttered up or something, but it genuinely feels like changes have come from the top down to improve all aspects of being a R* dev. The last studio I worked at literally made it a yearly event to leave a review online to make sure their rating were always good. It was so fake and in hindsight puts a really bad taste in my mouth. R* has never even insinuated they wanted positive reviews, they've just been consistently great.. If I ever got to a point where I wanted to move on to another studio, I feel like I'd be hard-pressed to find somewhere as good. Anyone who speaks differently about R* on the internet is under the false impression that the R* from years ago is still around, don't pay them any mind. I know I try my best to ignore them. My lead has strongly discouraged OT/crunch so that we don't burn out. Any extra hours I've put in has been because I wanted to and no, I did not feel any peer pressure to do so. Anyway, I wouldn't go and write an essay at 1:30 AM praising my employer unless I really believed what I was saying. I'm grateful for my time here and hope the company continues to improve. I'm definitely excited for Rockstar's future.

Cons

Noncompetitive wages; I wish they would be more communicative with the fans rather than being dead silent between game releases

Pros

Working on the greatest games of the era. I'll never forget it. Also - I was happy with the work/life balance for years, even though it was terribly unhealthy. If you are happy to work forever and always be on call, this would be a good place for you.

Cons

The IT team has almost no turnover at the upper end, so career growth hits a wall and you need to leave. If I could have stayed, I would have. The work/life balance was a Pro for me, but it is likely a Con for you.

Pros

- Free meals provided (usually nothing too interesting) - Colleagues are ok

Cons

- The higher up someone is the more they tend to boss around - No air conditioning

Pros

New managers seem to genuinely care about your well being. They've gone out of their way to ask on mental health during the pandemic and also have made sure to organize meetings to break up the monotony of the day/working from home. Bonuses are very high and seem to be pretty much guaranteed even though they aren't written into contracts. Work/Life Balance is vastly improved from years past. Recruitment seems to be hiring people at a faster pace and projects are more planned than in previous years. Get to work on some of the best games out there and constantly keeping skills sharp with new tech.

Cons

Approvals for almost anything can take a very long time. Strict social media guidelines and NDA. Studio collaboration can be difficult with time zones.