By Jacob Miller | Dec 15, 2025
Rockstar's Additional Explanation
As of late October 2025, Rockstar terminated 34 employees, 31 from its UK studios and 3 from its Toronto office. The terminations were explained by Rockstar as having taken place because the employees were involved in distributing confidential company documents through a private Discord server that the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain used to operate. The union has denied Rockstar's statement and believes it was an attempt to alleviate any potential union activity.
In Rockstar's most recent statement, they again emphasized that it had no connection to the discussions about workplace rules, including a prohibition on using certain emojis in Slack. However, the company also stated that there were limited amounts of employees who circulated and spoke about confidential documents related to unreleased and unannounced games in public and that this violated the company and the law. Due to these violations, Rockstar strongly denied that it was attempting to suppress the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain.
Rockstar's Claims Concerning the Discord Server
Rockstar also stated that the Discord server contained several non-Rockstar employees, including a gaming journalist and a person who worked for another gaming company. Nevertheless, the company stated that only the employees with confirmed breaches of confidentiality were terminated; all other employees who either supported or were attempting to unionize were not terminated.
Rockstar also stated that the information that led to the terminations had been reported to the company by employees who were members of the Discord and that the members had been concerned by what they learned about the leaks.
The UK government has taken notice of the situation with Rockstar after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer publicly expressed his concern regarding the circumstances surrounding the terminations of the Grand Theft Auto developers.
The Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain Disputes Rockstar's Statements
The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain was adamant in disputing Rockstar's statements related to the updated allegations against the union. Communications Officer Jake Thomas stated that the union does not know of any leaked game features and has disputed Rockstar's statements regarding the involvement of any journalists, stating that the person referenced was a union representative and union worker and that the non-Rockstar members of the Discord were only present to provide union benefits information to potential union members.
In another statement, the union asserted that Rockstar provided false information regarding the justifications for the October 2025 terminations and inconsistently rationalized the termination of employees. In response to the union's statement, Rockstar stated that the union had a poor understanding of the perception of who had access to the Discord server.
In November 2025, the union began legal action against Rockstar to compel the reinstatement of the terminated employees. The union has also issued a threat to pursue legal action for unfair dismissals if the demands for reinstatement are not met.
