Logitech gives its staff a day off to play games, and celebrates it on GTA 6's launch day

Logitech, the maker of computer mice, keyboards and gaming gear, is giving its employees a day off to play video games, and it's celebrating on the day Grand Theft Auto VI comes out. The company announced its first company-wide gaming day, Logi Game Day, on Nov. 10, with a stream from its Americas headquarters in San Jose on Thursday, Nov. 19.

Logitech's announcement doesn't make GTA 6 the reason, but its gaming chief named the game first among the ones staff might play. Here's what the company said, and how many players elsewhere are planning to take launch day off.

What Logitech announced

• A day off to play games, for employees across the company. Logitech calls it the first company-wide gaming day in its history.
• A celebration on Nov. 19, when Logitech G, its gaming brand, hosts a stream from the San Jose headquarters, led by its general manager, Robin Piispanen.
• GTA VI by name. Piispanen said that whether employees play a game like GTA VI or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, or race in Forza, Game Day gives the team a shared purpose.

The announcement doesn't say everyone has to take the same day. CNET reports that every employee has the option of taking GTA 6's launch day off, and that those who'd rather not can take a different day. Logitech has about 7,000 employees, Kotaku estimates.

Why Logitech says it's doing it

The company presents Game Day as a statement about what gaming does for people at work. "It's time to retire the stereotype that gaming is a waste of time," chief executive Hanneke Faber said. Its chief people officer, Elaine Laird, made the same case: that play and work aren't opposites.

Logitech backs it with its own research. In its Ctrl Tomorrow study, 81% of gamers said gaming builds confidence, reduces anxiety and goes with stronger performance at work, and in a separate survey of IT decision-makers at large companies, 98.8% said gaming skills carry over to work, such as strategic thinking and working under pressure.

Who else is taking time off

Logitech is making official what many players are planning anyway:

• In the UK, half of working adults who expect to play GTA 6 plan to take time off for it, and a third expect to take at least two days, according to a survey by Strand Partners for Virgin Media O2 of 520 UK adults who plan to play. More than one in five plan to keep a whole weekend free.
• In the US, requests to take Nov. 19 off are running 9% to 17% above a typical third Thursday of November, HR software firm BambooHR says, as our story on the time-off requests reports. Take-Two's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, joked in April that a lot of people would be calling in sick that day.

The same Virgin Media O2 survey found players expect to spend an average of 17 hours in the game in its first week. Virgin Media's network also had its busiest day ever as players started the download; our story on the broadband records has the figures and how long the download takes.

When GTA 6 unlocks

GTA 6 comes out on Thursday, Nov. 19, on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Sony says it unlocks at midnight, country by country, and US store listings unlock it at midnight Eastern, which is 9 p.m. Pacific on Wednesday, Nov. 18. So anyone with the day off on Nov. 19 can start the night before. Our release time guide has the time where you live, and the launch checklist covers what to do before then.