Fire Shuts GTA 6 Developer Rockstar North, Following Report of Explosion(www.ign.com)
39 pointsby finnlab19 days ago9 comments
  • esskay19 days ago
    What a ridiculously sensationalistic headline. It was a minor issue that occurred out of hours and was resolved less than 30 minutes into the working day. Nobody was in any way injured or affected, and it was business as usual.
    • snowram19 days ago
      GTA6 is most likely the most anticipated cultural product of all times. Unfortunately, sensationalization makes perfect sense from news websites perspective.
  • baalimago19 days ago
    Ah, the good old "explode the boiler to lower delivery expectations" trick. Befitting the studio of GTA!
  • Stevvo19 days ago
    A delay would inconvenience the whole games industry, not just Rockstar; every other developer has to time their release and development around GTA 6.
    • embedding-shape19 days ago
      I think most companies at this point learned that no launch date is set in stone. Sure, if you're doing AAA games, you might not want to launch right next to GTA, but for most others? Matters way less than people think.
      • TheCraiggers19 days ago
        Tell that to the indie developers that launched games alongside the surprise release of Silksong.
        • embedding-shape19 days ago
          > Tell that to the indie developers that launched games alongside the surprise release of Silksong.

          Huh? Is your argument that it would be bad for Silksong to surprise release next to GTA? Or that indie developers should have planned around the surprise release of Silksong? I really don't understand what argument you're trying to make here.

          • TheCraiggers19 days ago
            It sounded like you were saying other games launching at the same time yours does matters less than people think.

            My argument was that other releases can and do impact sales.

          • cdirkx19 days ago
            The argument is that Silksong will completely absorb any potential market for you new indie game had during that period. People will be too busy playing another game, leading to poor numbers during launch. It's hard to recover from that.
            • embedding-shape19 days ago
              Right, but what does that have to do with "every other developer has to time their release and development around GTA 6", especially considering that Silksongs release was a surprise, so what exactly could you even plan for?

              My original point that there is so many things at play, GTA 6 launch date, which may move, together with other things outside of your control, that "planning your release and development around GTA 6" doesn't make sense, unless you're a big company doing a AAA release.

            • butlike19 days ago
              This implies Silksong was the stronger title, either in gameplay, marketing; or both. If the indie game was better, people would be playing that over Silksong. Isn't this just market forces applied to games?
              • walletdrainer19 days ago
                That’s the point. If possible, you don’t want to release your game at the same time as a much stronger title.
                • butlike18 days ago
                  I'm saying that's defeatist to your game. Have faith yours is the stronger title
                  • walletdrainer16 days ago
                    You should also be mindful that there are marketing budgets you can’t outcompete.

                    Even if your game is better, you’ll probably make much more money if you don’t time it to launch at the same time as the new GTA

          • xmodem19 days ago
            The point is that no indie dev was able to plan around the surprise release of Silksong, precisely because it was a surprise.
        • delfinom19 days ago
          O wow, capitalism in action.
  • keyle19 days ago
    This is not going to help the memes... Glad no one was injured!
  • 19 days ago
    undefined
  • pogue19 days ago
    2027 I guess it is then :(
    • NohatCoder19 days ago
      I don't think this is likely to impact development much, they can rent office space elsewhere if needed.
      • embedding-shape19 days ago
        This is the same company that claims the exact hours of crunch is a "company secret" that would expose their development process and features of the game, so I don't think it's far off they'd use something like this to push another delay.
  • embedding-shape19 days ago
    Slightly unrelated (maybe?), here is a moderately nuanced summary video of the latest happenings in the ongoing court cases in "Rockstar vs Union": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnuipPQDd_w

    TLDR of the case: Rockstar fired some employees for a slew of different reasons (some leaked/confidential messages), (most) fired employees were members of the union and the court case is about if 1) they were fired for the right reasons and 2) they were fired in the correct way and right now 3) should they still get paid while the court case figures out the answers to #1 and #2

    I'm saying "maybe?" unrelated as it does sound like something a disgruntled employee might do, but could also be something completely else. I feel like it might be related though, hence the linking.

    • oniony19 days ago
      Could be a disgruntled employee; it could be Rockstar destroying their own records; it could be a leaky gas pipe.
  • giancarlostoro19 days ago
    Did the game become real life? Wild.
  • 4gotunameagain19 days ago
    Someone got too tired of the pay to win nonsense and decided to play in real life ? xD
    • nkrisc19 days ago
      The very first sentence of the article:

      > Fire services attended the offices of Grand Theft Auto 6 developer Rockstar North this morning and secured "structural damage" following a reported boiler explosion.

      • kotaKat19 days ago
        Well... then I guess the local boilermakers' union will have to come around with Scabby the Rat inflatables.
      • rationalist19 days ago
        It seems like it would be easier for some people to rig a boiler to explode than trying to get their hands on dynamite.

        Why go through the hassle of trying to source a bomb when the victim provides you one on location already.

        FYI, I'm not saying that's what happened, just that your dismissal shouldn't be immediate.

        Also, the best way to sabotage something, is to make it look like an accident, that way they aren't looking for you.

        • nkrisc18 days ago
          That’s an absurd stance to take in the absence of any supporting evidence.

          A boiler exploding is not surprising.

          • rationalist10 days ago
            > That’s an absurd stance

            That's why I didn't take that stance.

        • butlike19 days ago
          Hanlon's razor
      • 4gotunameagain19 days ago
        Are you familiar with the concept of a joke ? I can send you some peer reviewed papers to read about humour if you'd like.
        • nkrisc19 days ago
          Yes, I am familiar with jokes, but I don't see one here.
        • Novosell19 days ago
          Jokes are not permitted on HN, please don't do it again.
          • dessimus19 days ago
            HN is intented for mildly pleasant experiences only.
          • akramachamarei19 days ago
            That's not actually true, though, is it? Or is there some other HN legal document besides https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ?
          • testfrequency19 days ago
            Joking about an office building exploding is contextually not a funny joke
            • pfdietz19 days ago
              Even worse, they didn't make a joke about the game "being on Steam".
            • mschuster9119 days ago
              As long as no one died or got seriously injured, I see no problem in cracking jokes.
            • lanfeust619 days ago
              It didn't land, but bad jokes aren't a crime
              • lazide19 days ago
                Don’t tell TSA that.