A Rockstar Games release without controversy would be like The Game Awards without ads: More or less impossible and rightly inconceivable. Such has been the case since Red Dead Redemption 2, and crunch concerns arose around 2018. While that did nothing to impact the game’s success, it reportedly contributed to a major shift behind the scenes at the studio, which would in turn impact development on Grand Theft Auto 6.
You’ve likely heard about the firings of 34 employees from the company earlier this month. At the time, Rockstar was accused of union-busting, which it denied, and retaliated by stating that the firings were due to said employees “distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum.” As messy as the whole deal sounded, after the leaks surrounding Grand Theft Auto 6 in 2023, it would make sense if it were being especially egregious about security.
But surely it conducted a thorough investigation before arriving at those claims, right? Surely that wasn’t meant as a cover-up, and the company actually is “afraid of hard-working staff privately discussing exercising their rights for a fairer workplace and a collective voice,” as Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain president Alex Marshall put it.
Right? Well, that might not necessarily be the case.
One anonymous employee posted on the GTA Forums to offer their side of the story, with an admin verifying their identity, and called the “disinformation and lies” from Rockstar as “really concerning.” HR allegedly contacted each affected employee separately for a different purpose – a quick and friendly chat, as it were – which became their notice of termination. They were also reportedly given no right to representation by the union. The employee also denied the allegations of “distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum,” revealing that their discussions occurred in a private Discord with other union members and those from the IWGB about unionization and Rockstar’s working conditions.
“Let me make this clear! I never saw any discussion/leaking of Rockstar projects in the Union Discord,” they alleged. “This was Union Busting and nothing else! Everyone fired was a Union Member; they were also predominantly from those who were on the Union Organising Committees of each UK studio.” They also called these employees “hard workers who have spent many, many years at Rockstar in critical roles,” some for over 18 years, and “none of them have ever had a disciplinary in that time. They are not easily replaced and will certainly affect us in making our project deadlines.”
Then there are the allegations of how HR handled calls to those who weren’t present in the studio. These supposedly lasted a little under two minutes. One employee allegedly had a panic attack, and in response, HR apparently just hung up. How pleasant.
Now would be a good time to pause because you’re probably thinking: What does any of this have to do with you, the consumer? “I just want my copy of Grand Theft Auto 6” would likely be the common refrain, and whether these firings contributed to the delay or not (reports lean closer to the latter), that hasn’t changed. However, one reported effect that it has had is on the morale of those still working on the project, which is apparently at “rock bottom.”
“Those of us who are lucky and remain for now work in fear. Fearful when talking to each other, fearful that we’re next in line and are easily gotten rid of…” Whereas there should be excitement over what’s to come – and why wouldn’t there be, given how much of their hearts and souls have gone into this – the individual says, “We are now totally deflated, and our trust and confidence in others is totally shot.”
Of course, the story doesn’t end here. As this anonymous individual revealed all of this, the disadvantaged workers actually took to protecting outside of Rockstar North’s Edinburgh offices. One protestor called the company a Rockstar now “a giant international corporation, a machine that creates billions in value for its overseas shareholders in an industry rife with work exploitation, unfair practice, and unreasonable working conditions.” That’s on top of receiving “hundreds of millions in tax breaks designed to promote British values.”
“Grand Theft Auto 6 will make billions, that’s not in doubt. Shareholders will get rich, fortunes will be made. But I want people to think of the human cost. The people burnt out, the careers ended, the lives in disarray.”
Another protestor who previously worked at Rockstar’s QA department said joining the union felt like “putting a target on my back.” It’s probably unsurprising to hear that these firings have affected the employees’ families, healthcare and even their residential status in the UK. The IWGB called for all 34 employees to be reinstated with full compensation and said it had already submitted a legal claim, saying the ball is now in Rockstar’s court. “This is, in the end, egregious, and to be honest, shocking. I have never seen a thing like this, not just in the game sector, but in UK trade union organising in the last 20 years,” they said.
Interestingly, People Make Games revealed that the union’s formation was to be officially announced before the employees were fired. Since then, they’ve provided an update and seemingly answered a long-standing question: How did this all even begin?
Apparently, it happened due to Rockstar shutting down Slack channels related to activities like hobbies, pets, and even discussing other games that employees were playing. Though Rockstar informed its employees about this via email, they did so after work hours, during which the latter can’t access their work emails. However, these would reportedly be distributed by union members in the private Discord, which would lead to one concerned member bringing the whole exchange to management. It would have likely used this to gain access, read through all the logs and made a case for letting these employees go.
The IWGB has since responded to the video’s release, telling Kotaku that “we can’t get in the minds of Rockstar management to know what they were referring to when they referred to leaked information – they’ve provided us with about as much (or less) information than they have put out in public statements.” However, it confirmed that the private Discord was only used for “discussing information related to organising, such as the decision to remove Slack channels and pay and bonuses” with “strict policies about sharing confidential information.”
Which brings us to now. Whether you believe Rockstar is engaging in union-busting or not, it could potentially easily resolve all of this by reinstating the employees. Would it cost anywhere as much as the latest delay to Grand Theft Auto 6, which is reportedly to the tune of $60 million? Most likely not, and if anything, it would mean that the development period goes even smoother. Good for gamers, good for shareholders.
That’s unlikely to happen, though, because far from any financial costs, the higher-ups likely don’t want to give the impression, especially to parent company Take-Two, that it’s not in control. Even if it welcomes back the employees and everything is just peachy heading into Grand Theft Auto 6’s release, there are still discussions about what comes after.
What guarantee is there that such an incident won’t occur again? What’s stopping Rockstar from laying off these employees again, even if the game is a huge success (and let’s be real – it will be that and so much more)?
It speaks to the volatility of the industry as a whole…and it’s unlikely to be much cause for concern, either for Rockstar or the millions that will be enjoying Grand Theft Auto 6 (obliviously or otherwise). But hey, at least Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick promises an “unrivalled blockbuster entertainment experience,” and isn’t that just peachy?
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
