Rockstar Speaks Out On Union Firing Allegations

A recent report indicated that Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games was engaging in a “ruthless” act of union busting.

According to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Rockstar fired between 30 and 40 developers across its offices in the United Kingdom and Canada on Thursday, October 30, 2025.

“Rockstar has just carried out one of the most blatant and ruthless acts of union busting in the history of the games industry,” Alex Marshall, president of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWUGB), said. “This flagrant contempt for the law and for the lives of the workers who bring in their billions is an insult to their fans and the global industry.”

Rockstar itself denied any wrongdoing, with Take-Two spokesperson Alan Lewis saying that the firings were for “gross misconduct, and for no other reason.” It’s something that they doubled down on in a statement provided to Kotaku.

A week later, we have clarity on just what that gross misconduct was.

Rockstar Games Says Employees Were Fired For Leaking Company Secrets

A new report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier now clarifies that the employees fired last week weren’t due to union busting, but instead leaking company information. Rockstar Games has always been a developer infamous for its secrecy, often skipping major industry events such as E3 during its heyday to announce news on its own terms.

“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,” Rockstar said in a statement to Bloomberg. “This was in no way related to people’s right to join a union or engage in union activities.”

Alex Marshall of the IWUGB claimed that Rockstar was “afraid of hard-working staff privately discussing exercising their rights for a fairer workplace and a collective voice.” All of the affected employees were part of a trade union chat group on a Discord server.

“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 long-awaited Grand Theft Auto 6 has been in development for over a decade. During that time, Rockstar has been tight-lipped about information for most of that decade, though there have been several leaks during that timeline, all of which were confirmed to be legitimate. While the 2022 leak from Rockstar was notorious, especially considering it would still be several years before the game’s first official reveal, that grand reveal itself was also leaked. That was also not leaked by an actual employee, so the affected developers would have nothing to do with that.

While we saw a second trailer, as well as a character deep dive earlier this year, another GTA 6 leak hinted at the game spoofing popular apps and websites like OnlyFans and Uber. Suffice it to say, GTA 6 has fallen victim to several leaks as of late, all of which were real, which would give Rockstar cause to take action, provided this is all true.