It’s going to be tough to ignore the Nov. 19 release of Grand Theft Auto 6. A PCMag survey reports that roughly 12.5 million US workers are likely to take time off when the game comes out, resulting in over $1 billion in lost productivity. Technology company Logitech is deciding not to fight this, giving the entire company the <a href="https://ir.logitech.com/news/news-details/2026/Logitechs-Game-Day-Gives-Employees-a-Dedicated-Day-Off/default.aspx” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>option to take GTA6 launch day off.
Logitech calls this impromptu company holiday Logi Game Day, and it allows all employees to call off work for a day to play whatever game they want. The company is obviously expecting quite a few people to use the day to play GTA VI, but employees who don’t can take a different day off if they choose. This invitation to spend time gaming extends from the upper ranks of Logitech all the way down to the interns.
“It’s time to retire the stereotype that gaming is a waste of time,” Logitech CEO Hanneke Farber said in a statement. “As a company designing products for work and play, we see every day how engagement in one sphere supports performance in the other.”
In addition to giving everyone the day off, the company is also hosting a streaming event on Nov. 19, hosted by Robin Piispanen, general manager of Logitech’s gaming brand, Logitech G.
“We see firsthand how Logitech employees who sharpen their skills in-game translate directly back to work and problem-solving,” Piispanen said in a statement.
The few, the proud, the gamer-friendly companies
Logitech is the largest company to announce company-wide permission to take a day off to play Grand Theft Auto VI, but it’s not the only one. At least three other organizations are granting official paid time off so employees can play the game.
The first such organization to announce free time off for the launch was the US Army’s 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion of the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia, which gave soldiers a four-day leave to play the game if they reenlisted. That leave runs from Nov. 20-23, effectively giving soldiers a four-day weekend.
The SoCal-based company Burger Motorsports announced on its Instagram that it would pause operations for the day on Nov. 19 to give employees time to play the game. Canada’s Edison Motors gave up asking employees to come in on Nov. 19 and 20, granting the company a four-day weekend to play the game.
Why this is a good idea
Companies that take the initiative and give employees days off are ahead of the curve. Rather than penalizing anticipated absences, these employers are leaning into the launch — a move that could yield unexpected workplace benefits.
Logitech cited two such studies in its press release, including one that found that 81% of gamers believe that playing games increases confidence, reduces anxiety and stress, and is directly correlated with stronger day-to-day work performance. The other study showed that 98.8% of enterprise IT decision-makers reported that gaming skills directly translated into work performance.
Psychiatrist Douglas McWilliams told Psychology Todaythat taking time off to play games can also help reduce burnout, which is one of the leading causes of high turnover, absenteeism, lost productivity, and mental and physical health struggles among employees.
“Being able to mentally detach from work is generally accomplished through taking time off,” McWilliams told the magazine. “For recovery to occur, the time off needs to result in mental disengagement from work; it must involve some sort of activation energy; it must be relaxing; and it must be a decision within an individual’s control.”
McWilliams goes on to say that major video game launches such as Grand Theft Auto 6 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time — due out Nov. 21 — can meet these conditions and may positively affect the mental health of employees who take time off to play them.
