Recently, upcoming GTA 6 developer Rockstar Games have come under lots of criticisms for firing around 40 employees who are also members of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain. And even though Rockstar has claimed that the firings were done on the ground of leaking valuable information and not because the employees were part of any union, it’s still a bit odd cause nothing was actually leaked in terms of upcoming videogames or anything else.
However, parent company Take-Two Interactive CEO has defended Rockstar Games and has said that they are “incredibly proud” of the company’s labor relations:
“Here’s what we have a stance on. We value every one of our colleagues greatly. We have 13,500 colleagues worldwide. We’re so proud of our culture. In the last few years we’ve been recognized over 15 times as an employer of choice… we’ve been certified this year as a great place to work in the U.S. and UK, Forbes recently called us one of the world’s best employers, and further… our attrition rate is half or less of the industry average. To be specific, our global attrition rate is just over 6%, in the UK it’s less than 4%. The industry average is over 12%, and Rockstar is even lower than our average.”
“So, you know, the proof is in the pudding, and the food is good, and I think our culture is extraordinary. And we strive to be the most creative, most innovative, and most efficient company in the business. So that’s how we look at it. We’re incredibly proud of our labor relations.”
The workers themselves have denied Rockstar’s accusations of leaking sensitive company information and have participated in a protest outside of the UK offices of both Take-Two and Rockstar North yesterday while calling for their reinstatement.
Overall, the situation is clearly undesirable both for Rockstar and the affected develoers in many ways, 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 fall next year.
