GTA 6 crunch kicks in with 3 AM shifts – insider waves it off as “a normal day in India”

An anonymous Glassdoor review from Rockstar’s Bengaluru studio points to unpaid overtime and brutal night shifts to hit the GTA 6 deadline. But while the community sounds the alarm on crunch, industry insiders are brushing the hours off as standard practice.

The final stretch of a Rockstar game is notoriously heavy, and Grand Theft Auto 6 seems to be no exception. According to a new Glassdoor review from a developer at Rockstar India, staff are expected to cram five to six months of work into a two- to three-month window. The schedule has allegedly been chaotic since last month, with devs putting in unpaid overtime and pulling shifts until 3 AM after already completing their morning hours.

Screenshots of the review have been making the rounds on X sparking the usual debates around developer burnout. But YouTuber and insider Reece “Kiwi Talkz” Reilly ([@kiwitalkz]), who has connections to the Bengaluru studio and is visiting them in June, wasn’t exactly shocked.

“What you call crunch is just normal day to day work in India, so 100% yes lol,” Reilly posted, adding that he knows how “crazy” the work culture is there firsthand.

For anyone who has followed Rockstar’s history, the reports of a brutal final sprint aren’t surprising. The studio famously pushed developers into 100-hour work weeks during the tail end of Red Dead Redemption 2. Add the fact that the studio let go of over 30 staffers back in November, and the pressure cooker environment for the remaining team makes sense.

Despite already taking two delays, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick remains locked in on the November 19, 2026 release date. Zelnick recently joked that millions will call in sick for the launch, though he admitted he’s “terrified” of the astronomical expectations the game has to meet. Clearly, the devs pulling those 3 AM shifts are feeling that terror, too.