{"id":948051,"date":"2026-10-31T22:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T22:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/948051\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T22:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T22:06:13","slug":"grand-theft-auto-vi-video-game-could-grind-australias-economy-to-a-70-million-halt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/948051\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Theft Auto VI: Video game could grind Australia\u2019s economy to a $70 million halt"},"content":{"rendered":"

In less than a month, one of the world\u2019s most anticipated games<\/a>, Grand Theft Auto VI<\/a>, is finally set to hit the market, sparking a huge cultural moment.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Violent<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

To put the delay into perspective, when the last game in the series hit shelves in 2013, Julia Gillard<\/a> had just been ousted by Kevin Rudd<\/a>, and Tony Abbott<\/a> was sworn in as prime minister the next day.<\/p>\n

PR expert Eitan Soloducho warns that the November 19 release day alone could cost the Australian economy<\/a> at least $70 million, as many have already soft-launched the idea of ditching work to play their copy on release.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia has around 14 million workers, and if one in 100 pulls a sickie that\u2019s roughly 140,000 lost days,\u201d he told nine.com.au. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt about $500 of output a day you land on that figure, and it climbs fast if the release falls on a weekday.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody counts these hours,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Practical<\/p>\n

There are growing fears among bosses that their employees could ditch work for the game.\u00a0iStockphoto<\/p>\n

\u201cShift workers clear their schedules 24 hours before a game releases so they can play the second the servers open,\u201d Hale said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith GTA VI\u2019s level of anticipation, it\u2019s likely to cause a major, multi-day scheduling crunch across the frontline workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s<\/a> base storage.<\/p>\n

Ditching work to game is nothing new, with Deputy\u2019s shift data revealing that mid-week drops consistently trigger a wave of absenteeism.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The impending disruption has even landed on the radar of Australia\u2019s<\/a> workplace watchdog.<\/p>\n

The Fair Work Ombudsman recently took to social media<\/a> to outline how staff can legitimately take time off on launch day, walking through scenarios like caring responsibilities, emergencies, and even giving birth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re out of options covered by the National Employment Standards, you can still ask your employer to take unpaid leave for other reasons,\u201d the Ombudsman advised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no actual minimum entitlement to it, so you\u2019ll need to reach an agreement with your employer to use unpaid leave within these situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the regulator is helping workers navigate their entitlements, Deputy urging bosses to treat November 18 to 20 as an active risk window.<\/p>\n

\u201cGive staff a legitimate way to trade out of launch-window shifts weeks ahead, so they swap instead of no-showing,\u201d Deputy advised.<\/p>\n

\u2018It might expose a few workplaces\u2019<\/p>\n

Yet while mass sickies or requested time off will shake rosters, some experts argue the game\u2019s release will expose cracks rather than sink the nation\u2019s economy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s release week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game isn\u2019t about to destroy Australia\u2019s productivity, but it might expose a few workplaces that haven\u2019t figured out how to manage their people,\u201d Singh told nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Grand Theft Auto VI is releasing on November 19.\u00a0Rockstar Games<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

He emphasised that planned annual leave is not lost productivity, but an earned entitlement bosses should expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether somebody spends their leave travelling, looking after family, or stealing virtual cars in Vice City is frankly none of their employer\u2019s business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He added that the launch also delivers an economic upside through retail spending, hardware sales, and commercial activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bigger workplace culture<\/a> question is why an employee might feel more comfortable pretending to be sick than simply saying they\u2019d like a day off to play a video game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In less than a month, one of the world\u2019s most anticipated games, Grand Theft Auto VI, is finally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-948051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}