Rockstar Games has confirmed that they didn’t fire employees on the ground of joining a union but they were let go cause they were leaking valuable company information, according to a new report by Bloomberg’s Jason Scrier. In the report, Rockstar has accused the fired developers of giving out and sharing confidential information on the company in a forum with other non-Rockstar staff which is why around 30 workers have lost their jobs.
“Last week, we took action against a small number of individuals who were found to be distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum, a violation of our company policies,” the Take-Two statement said. “This was in no way related to people’s right to join a union or engage in union activities.”
Oddly enough, it seems the employees who Rockstar have fired, were all part of a private union chat on Discord and are members of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain as well.
However, as a response, Alex Marshall who is the president of the IWGB, stated that Rockstar was actually “afraid of hard-working staff privately discussing exercising their rights for a fairer workplace and a collective voice. Management are showing they don’t care about delays to GTA VI, and that they’re prioritizing union-busting by targeting the very people who make the game.”
The IWGB has also arranged a protest outside Take-Two’s London office today starting from 8 AM UK time, besides uploading a video on social media stating that what Rockstar has done is not only “illegal”, but also an “attack on workers’ rights and peoples’ well-being”.
“Not only is this illegal, but this is also a complete attack on workers’ rights and peoples’ well-being.”
“Instead of focusing on the development of the much-awaited GTA 6, Rockstar have chosen to take on the role of their classic game villains by breaking labor laws and firing hard-working staff making the game, betraying both workers and fans alike.”
The firings on the employees can certainly stain Rockstar’s reputation as a company which wouldn’t be desirable for obvious reasons, especially at a time when the entire world is waiting for Rockstar Games’ upcoming Open World behemoth GTA 6 which is currently slated to launch for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on May 26, 2026.
