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A Rockstar employee has slammed the Grand Theft Auto 6 development studio in a scathing Glassdoor review, calling the workload and expectations 'unrealistic'.

GTA 6 is set to release on November 19, 2026 following two high-profile delays. Such a mammoth project requires a mammoth effort to pull it all together, with Rockstar estimated to have spent the best part of the last eight years working on the next installment.

The video game industry is no stranger to crunch, a practice where developers are expected to work increasingly long hours in the final few months in the run-up to shipping a big project. In fact, Rockstar has come under fire for this before with co-founder Dan Houser suggesting some employees worked 100-hour work weeks to get Red Dead Redemption 2 over the line.

While there's no evidence of anything that extreme happening for GTA 6 just yet, some employees are logging complaints against the company in recent Glassdoor reviews.

A user that identifies themself as a QA tester at Rockstar Games awarded the company a two-star rating, with their review headline reading: "Exciting projects but unrealistic workload and expectations."

In the finer detail, they cite that they are expected to work overtime without any additional compensation. "Some colleagues had to work til 3AM in the morning after completing their shifts in the morning," the review reads.

"They're expecting us to complete tasks that usually take 5-6 months in 2-3 months."

The employee explains that these work scheduling issues have gotten worse in the last month, and that complaining to their head of department has proven useless.

In a message to management, they say: "I enjoyed working here in the previous year but the last few weeks have been a toll on my mental health, please be lenient on us, we are humans too."

They do mention a few positives about working at Rockstar, though - namely working on 'the most anticipated entertainment project in the world'. The review also praises Rockstar CEO, Sam Houser, and explains that there is scope for career growth, albeit in a limited capacity.

This isn't an isolated Glassdoor review that slams Rockstar for its working hours. Another post on the employer review site reads, "Very long shifts that go into overtime without pay," and, "Employees crunched down to working on material that should be prepped months in advance."

Another adds: "Frequent crunch periods, unstable or last-minute builds, repetitive regression testing, shifting priorities, overtime near release, and burnout risk due to tight deadlines and workload pressure."

Overall, Rockstar has a 3.8-star rating on Glassdoor. A more positive review claims that the company is 'really not as bad as everyone thinks'. "Things have massively changed but nobody is really vocal about it since we all have NDAs signed," the review reads, with the employee claiming that the days of crunch and overtime are 'long gone'.

This review was posted the same day as the employee who claimed they and their colleagues had to work until 3AM.

We have reached out to Rockstar for official comment on employee reports on working conditions.

GTA 6 is currently still slated for a November 19, 2026 release date. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has explained to fans that the marketing machine will start to spin up in summer, meaning we're expecting a new trailer any week now.

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