Rockstar Games’ vice president of writing leaves after 16 years

Rockstar Games’ vice president of writing, Mike Unsworth, has departed the company.

Unsworth had been at Rockstar for 16 years, having started off as senior creative writer in 2007, progressing to writing director in 2019, after which they served as vice president of writing for two years. During their tenure, Unsworth is credited as writing Grand Theft Auto 4, Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire, Max Payne 3, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Red Dead Redemption 2.

Grand Theft Auto 6 does not currently appear on Unsworth’s list of writing credits.

As spotted by GTA Forum user Rucke and tweeted by Rockstar Games news account SWEGTA, Unsworth announced their departure by updating their LinkedIn account, but did not explicitly post about their departure, nor clarify what their next steps may be.

In related news, as part of its recently publicised cutbacks, BioWare has “let go of” Lukas Kristjanson, the lead writer behind Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, and the writer of the first three Dragon Age games, Mary Kirby.

BioWare announced earlier this week that it’ll be laying off approximately 50 employees – around 20 per cent of its total workforce, according to recent employment figures – as part of a “shift towards a more agile and more focused studio”. Each writer had been with the studio for over 20 years.