Logitech is giving every one of its employees a day off to play video games, in a new company perk it has named Game Day. The Swiss-American company announced the scheme on 10 November in a press release from its twin headquarters in Lausanne and San Jose, describing it as the first company-wide gaming day in its history. Its gaming brand, Logitech G, followed at 18:30 UTC, or 10:30 in San Jose, with a post saying the day is “officially on the calendar”.
The company says the perk recognises “the value of gaming in the workplace and in career development”, rather than treating it as a guilty pleasure.
Chief executive Hanneke Faber framed the move as a challenge to an old prejudice. “It’s time to retire the stereotype that gaming is a waste of time,” she said in the release. Chief people officer Elaine Laird put it even more simply, saying that “play is not the opposite of work”. Robin Piispanen, general manager of Logitech G, said the skills employees sharpen in games, from GTA VI to “shaving seconds off lap times in Forza”, carry over into their jobs.
What Logitech’s Game Day gives employees, and when they can take it
The release does not set a single date when the whole company logs off, and it does not say how the day will be booked. A dedicated Game Day website says the perk applies to Logitech employees globally, “for the sole purpose of gaming”. It also includes a “Plan your Game Day” calendar of the biggest releases running into 2027, which hints at how staff are expected to use it. Logitech notes that those dates come from publishers and could still change.
Grand Theft Auto VI tops that list as the “Headliner”, with its 19 November launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. It is joined by Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV on 3 December, the full release of Path of Exile 2 on 11 December and Playground Games’ Fable on 23 February 2027. Rockstar’s game is already the most anticipated of the lot, with an estimated 9.69 million GTA 6 pre-orders tracked by Sensor Tower. Owners can now pre-load GTA 6, so many will be ready to play the moment it unlocks.
Logitech G will also mark Game Day with a live stream from its Americas headquarters in San Jose on 19 November, hosted by Piispanen. The company has not yet announced a start time for the stream or the platform it will be shown on. The stream falls on the same day Rockstar releases GTA VI, the game Logitech lists as the headliner of its Game Day calendar. Logitech is not the first employer to notice the pull of that launch, after a US Army battalion offered days off to soldiers who wanted to play it.
The research Logitech is using to make the case for gaming at work
Logitech is backing the perk with numbers from its own research. Its Ctrl Tomorrow study, carried out by the agency Burson in May and June, surveyed more than 9,400 people across nine countries, including the US, the UK, India, China and Brazil. According to Logitech, 81% of gamers in that study said gaming builds real-world confidence, reduces anxiety and carries over into their work. A separate Logitech survey of more than 1,000 UK adults aged 18 to 45, carried out in December 2025, found that 55% of gamers had asked for time off work just to play that year.
The second study looked at the people who buy technology for businesses. The Harris Poll surveyed 600 IT decision makers in the US, the UK and Australia in June for Logitech, and 98.8% said gaming relates directly to their core work skills. Strategic thinking, complex problem-solving and performing under pressure were the skills they mentioned most often, according to Logitech’s August release. The same survey found that 82% of IT hiring managers were more likely to consider candidates who list gaming experience on their CVs.
Both studies were commissioned by a company that sells gaming mice, keyboards and headsets, which is worth keeping in mind. The Game Day site also points to independent work, including a natural experiment covering 97,602 people in Japan during the console shortages of 2020 to 2022. That study, published in Nature Human Behaviour and summarised by Osaka University, found that owning a console and playing more improved mental well-being. Employment rules are another matter, as our guide to taking time off work for GTA 6 explains.
Why Logitech G is betting on gaming as a workplace skill
Gaming has become one of the steadier parts of Logitech’s business. In the three months to 30 September, gaming sales rose 8% to $349.3 million, while total sales grew 3% to $1.22 billion, according to the company’s second-quarter results. Faber said at the time that growth in the Americas, video collaboration and gaming had supported the top line. The company has warned that an incident at a semiconductor supplier’s facility will cut $70 million to $80 million from sales in the current quarter.
Logitech G also spends heavily on esports, which gives it a direct line to the players who influence what fans buy. In January, FlyQuest said Logitech G had expanded its partnership to cover all of the organisation’s competitive teams, including co-development of future products. It also announced a partnership with Gen.G in January 2025, supplying the Korean organisation’s League of Legends, VALORANT and Rocket League players. The brand has been in the news for less positive reasons too, after users noticed what its G HUB privacy policy says about mouse and camera data.
For Logitech’s own staff, the selling point is simpler. The company says Game Day is meant to “level up” employees, its culture and its future, according to the Game Day website. The Logitech G stream from San Jose takes place on 19 November, the same day Grand Theft Auto VI launches on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
