Grand Theft Auto (GTA) developer Rockstar Games has been mostly exempt from the rounds of layoffs that have rocked the industry throughout the last three years or so. This week, they have fired between 30 and 40 employees across offices in the United Kingdom and Canada, but not due to financial problems (which they do not have). According to the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB), this has been an act of 'union busting', as all the developers fired were attempting to unionize.
Alex Marshall, president of the IWGB, said in a statement:
Rockstar has just carried out the most blatant and ruthless act of union busting in the history of the games industry. 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.
Despite this calculated attack on workers organising for a collective voice and to improve their difficult working conditions, the Rockstar Union remains undeterred. They will keep organising for respect and better conditions whilst continuing to pour their blood, sweat and creativity into games that are loved by millions. The IWGB will pursue every legal claim possible to ensure our members are reinstated and receive interim relief.
Spring Mcparlin-Jones, Chair of the IWGB Game Workers Union, added:
Next year, GTA VI is expected to make upwards of $10 billion. That’s enough to end world hunger for a year. Such a flagrant attack on workers’ rights from such a valuable studio sends a very clear and shocking message to the world, that money matters more than people.
Alan Lewis, Head of Global Corporate Communications at Take-Two Interactive (the parent company of Rockstar Games), told Bloomberg that the employees were fired for 'gross misconduct', adding that Take-Two supports the GTA studio's approach in the matter.
Unionization has been increasingly common over the last three years in the industry, with studios like Blizzard Albany, Raven Software, Blizzard Irvine (the World of Warcraft team), Blizzard Orange County (the Overwatch 2 team), ZeniMax (as ZeniMax Workers United), and ZA/UM (which unionized recently and is represented by the IWGB) opting to unionize.
As a reminder, GTA VI is scheduled to be released on May 26, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X after slipping the original Fall 2025 launch window. Additional delays could still happen, though, as history tells us that Rockstar's previous game, Red Dead Redemption 2, was delayed from the second half of 2017 to the first half of 2018 and then again to October 26, 2018, when it launched to unanimous critical acclaim.
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