Red Dead Redemption Dev Says Crunch at Rockstar Was to 'Put on the Show' for Executives

Former Rockstar developer Kris Roberts, who led the design of Red Dead Redemption's multiplayer modes after working on vehicle tuning for the Midnight Club series, recently opened up about his experiences with crunch culture at the studio. In an interview on YouTube with Kiwi Talks, Roberts described the final six months of development on the cowboy epic as the worst period of crunch he experienced in the gaming industry, noting that the extreme hours left him in a delirious, amnesiac state from sleep deprivation.

Roberts explained that expectations regarding work hours escalated progressively over time. While initial roles involved fixed core hours with dinner provided for late stays, expectations eventually expanded to include half-days on Saturdays, full days on Saturdays, and optional-yet-encouraged Sundays. By the end of the project, staff were reportedly working every day, all day. Roberts admitted feeling conflicted about airing these old frustrations, contrasting his experience on Red Dead Redemption with earlier periods where he engaged in self-directed crunch out of personal motivation.

The former developer expressed particular frustration over artificial instances where management declared mandatory weekend overtime to coincide with visits from high-ranking executives such as Sam Houser and Leslie Benzies. According to Roberts, management would send out Friday afternoon emails declaring that staff needed to be in over the weekend—including Sundays—disrupting personal plans at the last minute. Roberts emphasized that these weekend mandates were not driven by legitimate business cases, critical bug counts, or urgent build requirements, but rather to create an artificial appearance of constant dedication for visiting company leaders.

As a multiplayer design lead, Roberts was tasked with communicating these mandatory weekend expectations down to his team of designers. He noted that having to enforce these demands was a major component of what pushed him to leave the studio, serving as one of the primary reasons for his departure. Rockstar's history of overwork has been a matter of public debate for years, drawing renewed attention amid ongoing unionization efforts by employees seeking protections against crunch.