Michael Unsworth has had a long tenure at Rockstar Games, so it’s fair to ask how much of an impact his departure will have on the company.

Unsworth was previously Rockstar’s vice president of writing. Still, it seems that he is quietly leaving Rockstar behind after a career that began in 2007, as his LinkedIn page shows that he left the company in 2023. There is also a post that essentially confirms that his job is likely to be done by someone else: “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. He deeply understands interactive storytelling, character development, and open-world game design and has extensive experience building and managing creative teams.”

LinkedIn differentiates between someone currently working in a particular job and someone who has left somewhere during the year. Unsworth’s vice president position is listed as 2021 to 2023, so “Present” doesn’t appear. Therefore, that’s not his current position! He joined Rockstar in 2007 as a senior creative writer, a position he held until 2019. He started with the dialogue for Midnight Club: Los Angeles and was responsible for the pedestrian commentary in Grand Theft Auto IV. He went on to write Red Dead Redemption with Dan Houser (co-founder of Rockstar) and Christian Cantamese, followed by LA Noire, Max Payne, and Grand Theft Auto V. Finally, he worked with Houser and Ruper Humphries on Red Dead Redemption 2. He then became a writing director.

It’s a question of how much of an impact Unsworth’s as yet unconfirmed departure (that’s weird!) will have on Grand Theft Auto VI, but the writing work may be already done. He’s not the only one to leave a senior role in recent years (Leslie Benzies in 2016, Dan Houser in 2020).

Source: PCGamer