Make New York Post a Preferred Source Some video game enthusiasts will soon be going on an extended vacation — to their mom’s basement.
As the Nov. 19 release of Grand Theft Auto VI threatens to drain $1 billion from the US economy in one day alone, workers in an array of industries as varied as tech, automotive and even the US Army, are being given the day off preemptively so they don’t call in sick.
The latest employer to join the GTA vacation craze is a video game producer that announced Thursday it will give its workers a five-day weekend to soak up the game’s seedy underworld.
“Employees have been granted special leave to attend to an urgent five-day business trip in Vice City when GTA6 launches,” Pocketpair wrote, referring to the fictional version of Miami that the violent video game franchise is set in.
The company attached a memo that went on to explain that employees will be absolved of their work responsibilities from Nov. 19-23 so that they don’t have to make excuses to play the game.
“On Nov. 19, millions of gamers around the world will find themselves sitting at school or work, gazing longingly out the window, knowing that a new era of gaming is about to begin,” the memo said.
“At Pocketpair, we believe such a historic occasion deserves our full attention.”
The announcement came after gaming hardware company Logitech announced it would give its 7,000 employees the day off to engage in criminal heists and stickups in Vice City — or play another game that struck their fancy.
In a press release, Logitech cited a study that found gaming “builds real-world confidence, reduces anxiety, and correlates with stronger day-to-day work performance.”
“It’s time to retire the stereotype that gaming is a waste of time,” said Hanneke Faber, Logitech’s chief executive officer. “As a company designing products for work and play, we see every day how engagement in one sphere supports performance in the other.”
The fervor has extended far outside the gaming industry, with automotive companies Burger Motorsports and Edison Motors giving time off to workers to play GTA, which features an open world in which gamers can drive vehicles and complete missions revolving around gunplay and crime.
It has even extended all the way to the armed forces — with soldiers in the 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion at Fort Stewart, Ga. being offered a four-day leave to drive recklessly, patronize prostitutes and destroy property in the virtual world, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The nation’s billion-dollar expected productivity loss would be caused by as many as 1.5 million Americans skipping work to play GTA on Thursday, according to a projection reported by The International Business Times.
Before “Grand Theft Auto V” dropped in 2013, the video game website IGN reported that 46% of its readers had already taken the day off and nearly 20% more planned to call out sick.
However, business will be booming on Thursday for Take-Two, the parent company of GTA developer Rockstar Games, which has already generated $1.2 billion in sales of the new title, according to Sensor Tower’s sales tracker.
Some lucky gamers could also score some serious real-world cash to spend on their Vice City vacation — the prediction market Kalshi is offering a $135,000 payday to a seasoned gamer willing to study the game’s virtual economy.
