Michael Unsworth, VP of writing atRockstar Games, appears to have left the studio. While this is yet to be officially confirmed, Unsworth’s LinkedIn profile has been updated to say that he is no longer at Rockstar, leaving the role this year.
If true, this is a big loss for Rockstar, with Unsworth having written forGrand Theft Auto 4,Red Dead Redemption,L.A. Noire,GTA 5,Red Dead Redemption 2, and more. He had presumably been working on GTA 6 too, now leaving mid-development.
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On top of Unsworth’s role at Rockstar now being listed as ending in 2023, he also appears to have updated his bio, describing his work at the studio in the past tense (as spotted by ResetEra user,dex3108.)
“Mike is an accomplished writer who spent over 16 years working for Rockstar Games as a creative lead on some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful video game franchises of all time, most notably Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption,” it reads. “He has a deep understanding of interactive storytelling, character development and open-world game design and extensive experience building and managing creative teams.”
The circumstances surrounding Unsworth’s apparent departure aren’t yet clear, but it could be that he’s simply joining other key Rockstar figures such asco-founder Dan Houserandwriter Lazlow Jones, who both left to pursue other projects in 2020. It still shows that Rockstar may have an issue keeping its veterans on board, particularly as it prepares to ship what must be the biggest GTA game of all time.
That being said, even if Unsworth has left, we can almost definitely expect to see his writing in GTA 6, just not in other projects beyond that.
If Unsworth has departed the company, we can also expect Rockstar to put out a statement. This development was only spotted over the weekend by fans, after all, so this probably isn’t how the news was meant to be broken - particularly after he helped the company ship some of the biggest games in the industry.
It’s quite a legacy to leave behind too. GTA 5 is well known for being the highest-grossing entertainment product of all time, so it’s fair to say that will look quite good on the CV. Then there’s the Red Dead Redemption series, which regularly makes lists for the best games of all time.
We’ll have to wait and see what we get from official channels. But for now, it certainly looks like we’re waving goodbye to one of the key writers behind Rockstar’s output of the past 16 years. We’ll have to see what he gets up to next.
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