The dismissal of several employees recently led to accusations that Rockstar Games was attempting to prevent the formation of a union. The company now claims once again that the reason was something else entirely.
In the midst of developing GTA 6, Rockstar Games is laying off between 30 and 40 employees. This news caused a stir a few days ago, mainly because of the alleged reason for the layoffs: according to a British union representative, the reason for the layoffs was an attempt to form a union.
The parent company Take Two has already denied these allegations, and now both the union and a representative of Rockstar Games are following suit.
Gross misconduct
The company had previously claimed that the employees were fired for gross misconduct. nbsp;Rockstar now confirms to Bloomberg that:
Last week, we took action against a small number of individuals who shared and discussed confidential information in a public forum. This is a violation of our company policy. It was in no way related to people’s right to form a union or participate in union activities.
So are the employees themselves responsible for their dismissal? The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain sees it differently.
According to the union, every employee who was fired was part of a private union chat on Discord. The only participants who did not belong to Rockstar were union members. Rockstar’s accusation is therefore not completely denied, but at the same time the union emphasizes its own position:
[Rockstar] is afraid of hard-working employees privately discussing their right to a fairer workplace and a collective voice in the company. Management is showing that they don’t care about delays to GTA 6 and that they would rather crush unions by targeting the people who make the game.
In the end, a court may have to decide who is right in this case. Currently, the dispute over the dismissals is a case of one person’s word against another’s. On the one hand, it would not be the first case in which a large company has torpedoed the formation of a union. On the other hand, Rockstar Games has become extremely cautious about the dissemination of confidential information since the major gameplay leak in 2022.
Given the widespread abuses in the video game industry, which have repeatedly caused a stir in recent years, it’s no wonder that more and more developers are seeking to form unions. One of the largest unions in the industry was founded in March 2025. You can read more about this in the article above.
