* Rockstar Games announced on 28th February 2024, that workers will have to be
in the office 5 days a week from 15th April 2024 as remote working provisions
are withdrawn for the majority of staff.
* The news comes one year after 170 Rockstar Games workers in the UK signed a
petition opposing mandatory 3-day office work, in one of the UK games
industry’s biggest ever trade union actions.
* Workers belonging to the IWGB Game Workers Union accuse Rockstar of “broken
promises”, an
Dev kits are accessed remotely. High-end PC 's are accessed remotely. Everything is done remotely. Hardware stays on-site. Source? Am game dev who works remotely full-time, using 4K streaming.
Maybe the tools have changed since last I worked in the industry (or maybe we weren’t good at using all the features), but I never saw that anyone had remote access to the devkits. I could remote into my workstation, but it surely was not the best way to work.
Yeah, Microsoft Remote Desktop is relatively slow but works for most workflows. For more demanding/responsive stuff with higher framerates (games), try Parsec (https://parsec.app/), it’s great. It has controller pass-through as well, at least for sony. I’m not sure about other brands.
Correct me if I am wrong, but this doesn’t seem to work for devkits? Like if I want to run something on a PS4 devkit, I can’t use parsec for that, can I?
Yes, you can use Parsec for that.
The devkit software (has its own proprietary video streaming/control) would be on the on-site PC you are controlling remotely, using Parsec from anywhere, which would then control the PS4. Or you could use VPN from anywhere with the devkit software and connect remotely to the devkit directly.
The first scenario is ideal because you’re only using Parsec (or RDP) from your personal device, whereas the second scenario would require installing the devkit software on your personal PC, which in my opinion it’s not good to mix work/personal hardware. Your work might instead provide a computer to remote with, but I would rather keep work devices outside of my home network.
Parsec is very smooth and responsive, and it takes only 50mbps or less IIRC.
I’ll definitely keep this in mind if I end up going back to the industry. Thanks!