Rockstar veteran John Ricchio is perfectly content not being part of GTA 6's development team, having previously worked on open world behemoths like GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption and experiencing burnout at the studio.
Talking to Reece "Kiwi Talkz" Reilly on YouTube (below), Ricchio – who was with the studio from 2003 and 2014 – speaks at length about crunch culture and related burnout. Although he contends that the level of crunch he experienced at Rockstar never reached a level of, "'I don't care about the people'," he says, "it's just not something that [Rockstar leaders think] about as high a priority as other things."
Ricchio says Rockstar can afford to ask a lot from its developers because there will always be talent ready and willing to work exorbitant hours or, as he puts it, "pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and make it happen," even if it's at the cost of their mental and physical wellbeing.
"If you're Rockstar you can always hire more people, if you're Naughty Dog you can always hire more people, Bethesda, you can always hire more people. That's the problem," he says. "And I don't begrudge those people for taking those jobs, but it does make it harder for the business to care because they can always replace people."
When asked point-blank if there's a "bittersweet" feeling to not being with Rockstar during GTA 6's development, Ricchio doesn't hesitate. "I think I'm pretty happy that I'm not on GTA 6, I'll just say that (laughs). Not that it wouldn't be cool to work with those people. It is really difficult and it's a hard period of your career when you're working that hard on something."
Ricchio admits that there's a "magic" to seeing such hard work pay off in glowing reviews and commercial success, and that he "wouldn't hate being part of that," but says he's at a point in his career where he isn't "quite as amenable to some of the ways that things are done, and I think that would probably lead to an exit for me.
"I've learned a lot about different ways that you can do things and different ways to build successful art projects and it doesn't require to do it on the backs of burning people out."
Ricchio adds that if you're a developer who finds professional fulfillment in unprecedented sales and universal acclaim, "you can't do much better" than working at Rockstar. "They always perform well," he says. "As crazy as the leadership is at Rockstar, they know how to make cool stuff. They just do.
"I used to interview people and I would say that, 'This place is run by crazy people, but you get to work on the best games in the world. So make sure you're OK with that, because that's the exchange that you get.'"
Referring to Red Dead Redemption as an example, Ricchio says scores of analysts approached Rockstar to proclaim, "Westerns were dead," and that "this is foolish," "they shouldn't be spending money on it." Of course, Red Dead Redemption is now widely considered one of the best games of its generation. "I think we won like 167 Game of the Year awards," says Ricchio.
"There is a magic to what Rockstar does, I just wish they would do it at a lower human cost."
Ultimately, Ricchio predicts "GTA 6 is gonna be great" and that anyone who even remotely considers themselves a fan of the series shouldn't hesitate to buy it, even at $80. "I think save up your money and play it, you will get way more than that money's worth in value, as far as time, like you will put hours and hours and hours into it."
