The sixth Grand Theft Auto game has been highly anticipated ever since it was announced in 2023, even winning the Most Anticipated Game at The Game Awards in 2025. It’s set to be published by Rockstar Games on Nov. 19, 2026 and is projected to earn hundreds of millions of dollars. It will undoubtedly be the most anticipated game release of the year.
You shouldn’t buy it. The projected $80 price tag is egregious enough, with some rumors claiming that it will even be $100. More importantly, you shouldn’t buy it because Rockstar Games is a terrible company.
Toward the end of Oct. 2025, Rockstar Games fired over 30 employees in the United Kingdom and Canada. In a Bloomberg report, they claim that it was over “gross misconduct, and for no other reason.” The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) calls it “one of the most blatant and ruthless acts of union busting in the history of the game industry.” According to a spokesperson for the IWGB, all fired employees were either members of the union or attempting to organize.
On Nov. 6, People Make Games (PMG) was invited to the scene of an IWGB protest outside of Rockstar North. They report that the Rockstar Games Workers’ Union had just recruited 10% of the UK Rockstar Games workforce. This major milestone represents a key step toward the union’s application for statutory recognition which would have forced the company to recognize the union whether they wanted to or not. PMG shares an email from one of the union organizers who stated that of the “roughly 40 employees” fired all were members of the union “including the majority of the organizing committee” and were “let go from Rockstar without warning, without proper due course or any reasonable process.” PMG declines to share their name but maintains they were in contact with this source before the incident.
In an interview with PMG, Bran, who worked at Rockstar Games for three years and is a union organizer, explains how damaging this firing was beyond a simple loss of a job. She states, “If I have gross misconduct on my CV, on my resume for the rest of my life, that is a huge detriment to any future career prospects. Something important to notice as well is you feel shame to be kicked out of work this way. Like all of us still want to be here.” Rockstar has not only disrespectfully let over 30 employees go, but has also sabotaged their chances at finding another job in the industry.
The more official reason given by Rockstar for this round of firings is the claim that those let go leaked “highly confidential information, including relating to game features from upcoming and unannounced titles, in an insecure and public social channel.” While all employees let go were in a Discord server together, the IWGB claims it was a private trade union chat group dedicated to union matters. Alex Marshall, the IWGB president, does clarify in an interview with PMG that the server did also contain some IWGB representatives who were not a part of Rockstar Games, there as resources to advise on unionizing. However, he claims that there was no discussion of any company secrets and instead just the legal discussion of people’s “material conditions at the company.”
PMG further expands on this suspected Discord server using recreated screenshots shared by an anonymous employee at the studio, who was not even a member of the union. While there was a general channel for all Rockstar employees who were invited to the server to chat and view, there were several channels locked for non-union members. The employee recalls no instance of any confidential game details being shared.
PMG’s source further theorizes that the investigation into this Discord server was kickstarted by Rockstar’s change in Slack policy in the second week of Oct. 2025. In an attempt to decrease distractions, Rockstar allegedly called for the removal of Slack channels used for non-work related discussions, sources of “poor conduct.” PMG notes that one of these channels was used to share industry news, such as news surrounding mass layoffs where union workers could subtly show support for the union and those that were laid off. Changes to the Slack policy were communicated via email, with one email being sent after 5 pm, prompting members of the server to share this internal email with colleagues who were off work. It seems that from there, one member of the server went to management to share concerns surrounding the discussions being had. At the end of the month, 34 union members were fired.
On Nov. 12, 2025, the IWGB issued legal claims against Rockstar Games. Their legal team states that “Despite our representation and attempts to meet with Rockstar to resolve the matter through negotiation, Rockstar have declined and persisted to terminate members of the union in a manner that is unacceptable and unlawful. Accordingly, we have now issued formal legal claims against Rockstar on behalf of the Claimants. Our members allege that Rockstar’s conduct constitutes trade union victimization and blacklisting.”
The legal battle continued on Jan. 5, 2026, when a preliminary hearing was held at the Glasgow Tribunals Centre where the IWGB made a case for the fired Rockstar workers. The main focus of this case was that they should be granted interim relief which would provide the fired employees with support while they wait for a hearing. If granted, workers would once again be on Rockstar’s payroll and allow some to keep their work visas. However, the verdict was dealt on Jan. 13 in favor of Rockstar Games. Judge Frances Eccles noted that “[t]here was no evidence of the respondent having suffered any adverse consequences as a result of these postings.”
While this trial did not go in favor of the union, the BBC notes that “the judge said it was not possible to conclude whether union membership was the ‘principal reason’ for the workers’ sackings,” meaning that a verdict of union-busting is still on the table. They also report that “[s]taff were also not informed of the comments regarded as gross misconduct until about six weeks after their dismissal, [Eccles] added,” indicating that, at the time of the firings, employees were not properly informed of the reason behind their dismissal. In response to the ruling, Alex Marshall claims that they are “more confident than ever that a full and substantive tribunal will find Rockstar’s calculated attempt to crush a union to be not only unjust, but unlawful,” keeping in mind that securing interim relief was an “incredibly high bar” to clear.
The case continues to escalate with the involvement of U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer declaring that the government will look into Rockstar’s dismissal of 31 union members (three of the fired employees were in Canada) as it is “deeply concerning.” He continues, “Every worker has the right to join a trade union and we’re determined to strengthen workers rights and ensure they don’t face unfair consequences for being part of a union.”
MP Chris Murray, who brought the case to Starmer’s attention, recalls that in an attempt to meet with Rockstar along with MPs Tracy Gilbert and Scott Arthur that “[they] as MPs [were] refused entry unless an NDA was signed, a request [Rockstar] eventually withdrew after being made clear this would not be signed.” Furthermore, in his statement to IGN, he reports that “[t]he meeting only entrenched my concerns about the process Rockstar used to dismiss so many of their staff members. I was not assured their process paid robust attention to UK employment law, I was not convinced that this course of action was necessary, and alarmingly, I did not leave informed on exactly what these 31 people had done to warrant their immediate dismissal.”
One might observe that if these leak accusations are real, they should be well known. The public is thirsty for any information they can get about GTA VI. It’s hard to believe that such information coming from a number of confirmed Rockstar employees would not be immediately reported by any game journalism outlet. In a statement to IGN, Rockstar Games claims that the “channel contained at least 25 non-Rockstar employees, including employees of competitor game developers, a video games industry journalist, as well as dozens of anonymous, unidentifiable members.”
With their defense of “a zero-tolerance approach to unauthorized releases of information,” Rockstar has tried to refute the IWGB’s accusations. IGN states that Rockstar believes “that if the comments in question were leaked they would have been big gaming news and might even have affected Take-Two’s [their parent company’s] share price.” It’s understandable that Rockstar might be hesitant to share such proof as it would inevitably be covered in the legal case and thus likely make its way to the public. Until then, it seems more and more likely that this was in fact a case of union busting.
I keep thinking about Rockstar’s vagueness in their initial reason for firing: “gross misconduct, and for no other reason.” No other reason than what, exactly? It’s suspicious how vague they are. It does not seem like the response of an innocent party. In a company that has been known to profit from crunch culture, profit from having developers work under undesirable conditions, it makes sense to try and quell any opposition to this successful model.
While reports from last year do note that the conditions of GTA VI’s development were better than the initial scandal of Red Dead Redemption 2’s development in 2018, old habits die hard. The more the release date gets pushed back, the more pressure developers feel as fans grow impatient. We can even see the studio possibly feeling that pressure in the alleged Slack policy change.
If you care about workers’ rights, you should not buy GTA VI. If this all ends with Rockstar being innocent, then spend away. Until then, hold onto your money. Rockstar believes that they can get away with this swift firing because they have calculated that their bottom line will be okay. They believe that you, their consumer, do not care about the people who make your games as long as you can play them. They will continue to be uncooperative and unaccountable until their hand is forced.
People Make Games (YouTube). “The Messages Rockstar Saw Before Firing 34 Union Members.” Uploaded Nov. 24, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TvWNFBBwuY&t=619s
Grand Theft Auto VI, long awaited by fans since its announcement four years ago, has become mired in controversy. (Image: Rockstar Games)