In an article posted by ShackNews, unnamed wives are claiming that hostile work environments exist in the Rockstar San Diego development studio, akin to the work environment claimed by the EA Wives blog. “Rockstar Wives” are claiming 12-hour / 6 day work weeks, not allowing time off for doctor appointments, and that corporate intimidation tactics were levied against those requesting time off. There are also claims of annual salary pay increases being under the inflation rate. According to the ShackNews article Rockstar San Diego code staff is split between two projects. One group is working on an an unannounced game, and another group is hard at work trying to get Read Dead Revolver out by the April 27th street date.

I’ve never worked in the game industry, but I have worked at businesses that do have “crunch times” during the year. While working IT for a large retailer, I knew that mid-November through early January was a bad time to ask for time off. When I was working as a service agent for a major car rental company, I knew that there were three times during the year in which there would be high rental traffic due to national and international events being held in or near the city I lived in. The rental company had contracts with businesses who sent reps to these events, so 10 or 12 hour work weeks were nothing out of the ordinary. Nobody liked it (well, I did, because the overtime paid for my Camaro), but that was simply the nature of the industry I was in.

When I was dealing with these “crunch times”, I was single. Since I’ve been married I’m in a totally different industry that doesn’t require me to deal with those issues. I wouldn’t put it past a corporation to skimp on pay increases, benefits, or lay on the pressure to squeeze more out of its employees–especially during this bad economy when jobs are scarce. However, I can’t help but wonder if some wives were simply not prepared, or have grown tired of the way the gaming industry works, and the toll it takes having a husband/father gone for long hours.