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.
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.
“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.
