Rockstar is one of the largest studios in the gaming industry, with GTA5, the last major release by the company, now the highest selling game of all time. You can naturally expect that the developers working there would be fairly compensated too, as a result.
However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. In response to government legislation about transparency for annual payments for companies in the UK, Rockstar has posted its wages breakdowns—and on average, Rockstar’s female staff are paid a mean of 64% less than their male coworkers, which is the largest of any gaming studio in the UK. Female staff also receive a mean bonus pay 84% lower than men’s, which only worsens the situation.
To their credit, Rockstar have put out a statement acknowledging this disparity, and committing to do better going forward. “We are dedicated to continuing to build a representative gender balance across all our studio activities, and pledge to continue to find new ways to support and encourage women to both take up and advance in career opportunities in game development,” they said.
Hopefully, by next year, or the year after, the numbers are far less troubling than they are this year. Maybe some of that sweet Red Dead Redemption 2 money can go towards balancing things out, right?
Thanks, GamesIndustry.