* Rockstar Games announced on 28th February 2024, that workers will have to be
in the office 5 days a week from 15th April 2024 as remote working provisions
are withdrawn for the majority of staff.
* The news comes one year after 170 Rockstar Games workers in the UK signed a
petition opposing mandatory 3-day office work, in one of the UK games
industry’s biggest ever trade union actions.
* Workers belonging to the IWGB Game Workers Union accuse Rockstar of “broken
promises”, an
Tbh, game studios often require special equipment such as dev kits and high-end PCs for development. It makes sense that they might not want to send this equipment home, especially if it is an unreleased console"s dev kit. Game studios honestly seem more justified in not having WFH
Dev kits are accessed remotely. High-end PC 's are accessed remotely. Everything is done remotely. Hardware stays on-site. Source? Am game dev who works remotely full-time, using 4K streaming.
Maybe the tools have changed since last I worked in the industry (or maybe we weren’t good at using all the features), but I never saw that anyone had remote access to the devkits. I could remote into my workstation, but it surely was not the best way to work.
Yeah, Microsoft Remote Desktop is relatively slow but works for most workflows. For more demanding/responsive stuff with higher framerates (games), try Parsec (https://parsec.app/), it’s great. It has controller pass-through as well, at least for sony. I’m not sure about other brands.
Correct me if I am wrong, but this doesn’t seem to work for devkits? Like if I want to run something on a PS4 devkit, I can’t use parsec for that, can I?
Yes, you can use Parsec for that.
The devkit software (has its own proprietary video streaming/control) would be on the on-site PC you are controlling remotely, using Parsec from anywhere, which would then control the PS4. Or you could use VPN from anywhere with the devkit software and connect remotely to the devkit directly.
The first scenario is ideal because you’re only using Parsec (or RDP) from your personal device, whereas the second scenario would require installing the devkit software on your personal PC, which in my opinion it’s not good to mix work/personal hardware. Your work might instead provide a computer to remote with, but I would rather keep work devices outside of my home network.
Parsec is very smooth and responsive, and it takes only 50mbps or less IIRC.
I’ll definitely keep this in mind if I end up going back to the industry. Thanks!
I worked for two triple A studios and we have had both our dev kits and high end PCs at home. There are so many tools to encrypt, secure, remote access, manage, etc, that it’s no problem at all. And most are tools these companies are using anyways, in office.
Both companies actually got MORE productive with work from home. My old company is forcing people back to office, but my new one isn’t. I wonder if it has anything to do with that big office building they just bought…
Tbh you shouldn’t defend rockstar just because you like their games.
I actually don’t like their games. I am speaking as someone who used to work for a AAA, both before and during COVID shelter in place
Why is everyone else in the comments disputing what you’re claiming?
Because every other dev here is saying that on-premise work isn’t actually needed for for devkits, and this guy has a definite vibe of “man, if I don’t defend the multi-million dollar game corporations, no one else will!”
All that stuff is not hosted in the work computer, they use virtualization.
Not every dev is compiling code to run on a devkit tho? Also, not gamedev, but surely they’re not running a new build every day
Depends on the studio. There will be a lead platform, and if that platform is a console, then a majority will run on a devkit.
In the studio I worked in, we ran new builds almost twice a day. That doesn’t include the iterative changes you make if you are a programmer. If you don’t run new builds contantly, that means you aren’t doing any actual work if you are on the engineering side. If you are in art you might not really screw around with too many builds. If you are a director or producer, you might not either if you’re bad at your job.
This is not true. There are higher-end engineering positions that orchestrate everything for the other engineers, amongst other things.
I’ll be explicit in regards to my other comment about remote working for others without gamedev experience. Compiling/generating/deploying game-builds is done locally at the studio, but the process is controlled remotely by the game devs.
I’m sure you can install an HP anywhere concentrator and remote into the machines from home, networking has solutions for things like this.
Though, you don’t have to force everyone to come in every day, just don’t let people take that stuff home, so if they need that stuff, then they come in that day. Videogame devs are actually more likely to be nerds that get full value out of on-line social contact and have even less reason to benefit from seeing colleagues in-person.
The company should also have secure remote tunneling, so the powerful pc’s can be used by even a 10 year old tablet at home if need be. They can save some room and power by not needing those powerful computers set up at a desk with monitors. Have a couple out for the people that want or need to come in, and the rest can be in a server mount configuration.