In less than a month, one of the world’s most anticipated games, Grand Theft Auto VI, is finally set to hit the market, sparking a huge cultural moment.
After an agonising 13-year wait, millions will get their hands on the latest edition of the critically acclaimed series, but for Australian employers, it could spell disaster.
The last GTA game dropped in September 2013 and did not cause half as much stir as the one that is set to release next month. Getty
To put the delay into perspective, when the last game in the series hit shelves in 2013, Julia Gillard had just been ousted by Kevin Rudd, and Tony Abbott was sworn in as prime minister the next day.
PR expert Eitan Soloducho warns that the November 19 release day alone could cost the Australian economy at least $70 million, as many have already soft-launched the idea of ditching work to play their copy on release.
“Australia has around 14 million workers, and if one in 100 pulls a sickie that’s roughly 140,000 lost days,” he told nine.com.au.
“At about $500 of output a day you land on that figure, and it climbs fast if the release falls on a weekday.”
He cautioned that sick days are the least of bosses worries, with the real concern being people showing up to work and spending the day thinking about the game rather than actually doing their job.
“Nobody counts these hours,” he said.
Ciaran Hale, chief technology officer at payroll business Deputy, warned the biggest trap for businesses will actually strike 24 hours before release as staff take time off to download the title ahead of its November 19 launch.
There are growing fears among bosses that their employees could ditch work for the game. iStockphoto
“Shift workers clear their schedules 24 hours before a game releases so they can play the second the servers open,” Hale said.
“With GTA VI’s level of anticipation, it’s likely to cause a major, multi-day scheduling crunch across the frontline workforce.”
The open-world action game is no small download either, with reports suggesting a massive 210-gigabyte file size, eating up roughly a quarter of a PlayStation 5’s base storage.
Ditching work to game is nothing new, with Deputy’s shift data revealing that mid-week drops consistently trigger a wave of absenteeism.
When Overwatch 2 had its rollout in 2022, absenteeism surged to 12.7 per cent on launch, up from almost 94 per cent higher than baseline trading days.
The impending disruption has even landed on the radar of Australia’s workplace watchdog.
The Fair Work Ombudsman recently took to social media to outline how staff can legitimately take time off on launch day, walking through scenarios like caring responsibilities, emergencies, and even giving birth.
“If you’re out of options covered by the National Employment Standards, you can still ask your employer to take unpaid leave for other reasons,” the Ombudsman advised.
“There’s no actual minimum entitlement to it, so you’ll need to reach an agreement with your employer to use unpaid leave within these situations.”
While the regulator is helping workers navigate their entitlements, Deputy urging bosses to treat November 18 to 20 as an active risk window.
“Give staff a legitimate way to trade out of launch-window shifts weeks ahead, so they swap instead of no-showing,” Deputy advised.
‘It might expose a few workplaces’
Yet while mass sickies or requested time off will shake rosters, some experts argue the game’s release will expose cracks rather than sink the nation’s economy.
Workplace culture specialist and Mission and Rhythm founder Deepak Singh said he is wary of putting a specific sum on the potential losses of the game’s release week.
“The game isn’t about to destroy Australia’s productivity, but it might expose a few workplaces that haven’t figured out how to manage their people,” Singh told nine.com.au.
Grand Theft Auto VI is releasing on November 19. Rockstar Games
“I’d be very cautious about putting a dollar figure on that without knowing how many Australians will actually take unplanned leave, how much work will be rescheduled, and what businesses will do to prepare.”
He emphasised that planned annual leave is not lost productivity, but an earned entitlement bosses should expect.
“Whether somebody spends their leave travelling, looking after family, or stealing virtual cars in Vice City is frankly none of their employer’s business,” he said.
While customer-facing teams and small businesses might face actual short-term shortages, Singh said the answer is workforce planning rather than panic or surveillance.
He added that the launch also delivers an economic upside through retail spending, hardware sales, and commercial activity.
“The bigger workplace culture question is why an employee might feel more comfortable pretending to be sick than simply saying they’d like a day off to play a video game.”