GTA 6 reports and rumours
GTA 6 launch has Australian bosses bracing for sickies (report)
Report, not confirmed by Rockstar
What is being reported
The Brisbane Times reports that Australian employers are bracing for a wave of no-shows when GTA 6 unlocks at midnight on Thursday 19 November, and that some bosses are giving staff the day off.
This is a report, not an announcement from Rockstar. We track whether it turns out true in the claims register; when Rockstar confirms or denies it, this page gets an update and the label above changes.
GTA 6 unlocks in Australia at midnight on Thursday 19 November, and bosses are already planning around it. The Brisbane Times reports that Australian employers are bracing for a wave of no-shows that morning, and that some are giving staff the day off rather than fighting it.
According to the paper, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told a conference in Las Vegas he thought “a lot of people will be calling in sick on November 19”. We have not independently checked that conference appearance. The calendar makes the remark easy to follow: in Australia the game unlocks at midnight in Sydney (1pm UTC on 18 November, 9pm in Perth), and that night runs straight into a working Thursday. The times for every region are on when GTA 6 unlocks.
Not everyone is waiting to call in sick. The Brisbane Times, citing payroll firm Employment Hero, says leave already booked for 19 November is up 29% on the same Thursday last year, across more than 870,000 Australian workers, with men aged 18 to 44 making up three-quarters of the rise. Rostering firm Deputy found that when Overwatch 2 went wide on a Thursday in August 2023, 12.7% of rostered shifts went unworked, against a usual 6.55%, and that in every launch it studied absenteeism also rose the day before release. Deputy’s chief technology officer, Ciaran Hale, called that pre-release rush “the real trap for businesses”.
That spike may be smaller this time, because pre-loading has been open since 10 November, a point the paper also notes. A figure to treat as an estimate, not a forecast: PR consultant Eitan Soloducho, the Brisbane Times says, puts the cost to the Australian economy at $70 million or more, by assuming one in 100 of Australia’s roughly 14 million workers pulls a sickie to play.
The paper also says the Fair Work Ombudsman has published advice on taking time off for the launch: paid sick leave is for workers who are genuinely unfit for work, and employers can ask for evidence. If you want the Thursday off, the safer path is still to book it. The claim sits in our claims register as a report, not as something Rockstar has confirmed.
Where it stands now
Where this comes from
Who says it, below. A source marked reported is someone else's account, not Rockstar's; we name it so you can weigh it yourself.
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