The making of "Grand Theft Auto VI"

Channel: CBS News

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:01] Are we going to be okay? We

[0:04] >> stuck together through everything. Just

[0:06] got to get through it.

[0:07] >> After years of anticipation, we just got

[0:09] a new official trailer for what may be

[0:11] the biggest video game release of all

[0:13] time. Grand Theft Auto 6 was originally

[0:15] supposed to come out in the fall of last

[0:17] year after being in development at

[0:18] Rockstar Games for almost a decade. Now,

[0:21] we're seeing an inside look at the

[0:22] making of GTA 6 ahead of its November

[0:24] 19th release. One journalist who

[0:26] interviewed some of the games creators

[0:28] said the company Rockstar Games had to

[0:29] rebuild itself to get to this point.

[0:32] Joining us now to discuss is the author

[0:33] of that piece, Bloomberg News reporter

[0:35] Jason Shrier. Jason, thanks for being

[0:37] here. First off, just tell us about the

[0:40] level of detail that went into creating

[0:42] this.

[0:43] >> Yeah, thanks so much for having me. This

[0:45] is a game that has uh probably the most

[0:48] realistic fictional recreation of Miami

[0:51] that we've ever seen before. The

[0:53] developers behind the game had to go to

[0:55] Miami several times for quoteunquote

[0:57] research trips. Uh going into nightclubs

[0:59] and taking helicopter rides around the

[1:01] city, going on ride alongs with cops and

[1:03] meeting criminals. Um they did their

[1:05] research for this one and uh I think uh

[1:09] when you play the game and I've seen a

[1:11] little bit of the game so far, I think

[1:13] you can you can kind of get that detail

[1:15] out of seeing the world that they've

[1:17] made.

[1:18] >> Helicopter rides and club hopping sounds

[1:20] like brutal research to me. Rockstar

[1:22] became a company known early on for its

[1:24] exceptional games, but also its work

[1:27] ethic, both good and bad, eventually

[1:29] became known in the industry as the

[1:30] crunch. Do the people you spoke with

[1:32] suggest that dynamic has changed or

[1:34] improved at all?

[1:36] >> Yeah, it's it's something that Rockstar

[1:38] has been trying to reckon with. I think

[1:40] that um crunch, which is basically the

[1:42] video game industry's terms for

[1:44] excessive overtime, sometimes weeks

[1:47] straight, sometimes months straight. Um

[1:49] it is something that a lot of game

[1:51] companies have had to deal with over the

[1:52] years. Rockstar became a at the center

[1:55] of a controversy surrounding Crunch

[1:56] after the release of its last game, Red

[1:58] Dead Redemption 2. Leaders of the

[2:00] company promised they were trying to

[2:02] avoid it this time around. I'm not sure

[2:04] how successful they were from what I've

[2:06] heard. Some people certainly crunched on

[2:08] this game, but they have done some

[2:09] things to kind of improve their culture

[2:12] to try to mitigate the crunch to try to

[2:14] compensate for it. For example, one

[2:16] policy they instituted was a time off in

[2:18] lie of extra hours. So essentially every

[2:21] extra hour you worked, you could get a

[2:23] bank an hour of paid time off to

[2:26] compensate. Uh we'll see. Hopefully uh

[2:28] the company actually delivers on that

[2:30] promise and the game comes out and

[2:31] people can take off a bunch of time. But

[2:34] yeah, I mean they've certainly addressed

[2:36] it. I don't know if they've fixed it.

[2:37] Um, from what I've gathered, it's better

[2:40] than the last project was.

[2:41] >> The company is still seeing protests

[2:43] over its decision to fire a number of

[2:44] employees who had been trying to form a

[2:46] union. What happened there?

[2:48] >> Yeah, so last year uh Bloomer broke the

[2:50] news that Rockstar had fired 34 people

[2:53] um many of whom most of whom were

[2:56] involved in efforts to start a union at

[2:58] the company. Rockstar says that they

[3:01] were fired for leaking confidential

[3:03] information in a Discord containing both

[3:05] current and former employees. The

[3:08] employees and the union deny that. They

[3:09] say they were fired for union busting

[3:12] and that has gone to trial in a Scottish

[3:15] tribunal that is happening as we speak,

[3:17] expected to be over in November or so.

[3:20] And at the same time actually um

[3:22] throughout this year uh employees of the

[3:24] company have continued their union

[3:26] effort and in fact they asked for

[3:27] voluntary recognition of their union in

[3:30] the UK earlier this year over the

[3:32] summer. Um and uh I guess their next

[3:36] step they're they're meeting with a

[3:37] company currently. Their next step will

[3:38] be to vote and we'll see what happens

[3:41] there.

[3:41] >> Jason Shrier, thank you.

[3:44] Thanks so much for having