Rockstar fires more than 30 UK and Canada staff; studio and union dispute the reason

Rockstar Games dismissed more than 30 employees at its studios in the UK and Canada at the end of October 2025. Take-Two Interactive confirmed the dismissals and gave "gross misconduct" as the reason; the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain, known as the IWGB, says the staff were targeted for organizing. Neither account had been tested in court at the time.

What it means for players

The dismissals were not behind the delay that followed, according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier. When GTA VI was delayed to November 19, 2026 a week later, he wrote on ResetEra that the slip was "not due to the firings," while warning that the fallout could still hurt the project over time, GamesRadar+ reported. The timeline has every date change.

How it became public

The IWGB announced the dismissals on social media on October 31, the day after they took place, and Bloomberg reported the union's accusation the same day, as GamesRadar+ relayed. Early counts ranged from 30 to 40 people, Game Informer noted. Schreier later put the number at 34, and Rockstar has since referred to 31 UK staff.

What Rockstar and Take-Two said

The first response came from Take-Two spokesperson Alan Lewis. He told GamesRadar+ that Rockstar "terminated a small number of individuals for gross misconduct, and for no other reason," and that Take-Two backed the studio.

Days later, Rockstar gave Bloomberg a fuller explanation, which Kotaku and VGC relayed. The studio said the people involved had shared and discussed confidential company information in a public forum that included people from outside Rockstar, breaking company policy. It said the action was "in no way related to people's right to join a union or engage in union activities." At the time, Rockstar did not say what information it meant.

What the union alleged

The IWGB tells a different story. It says everyone dismissed was a union member or was organizing one, and that all of them belonged to the same private union Discord group. In its first post about the dismissals, the union described the move as "the most ruthless act of union busting in the history of the UK games industry," as quoted by GamesRadar+.

After Rockstar's explanation, IWGB president Alex Marshall said the studio was trying to "deflect from the real reason for these dismissals," The Register reported. In his account, anyone in that channel who did not work at Rockstar was a union organizer. The Register also cited an unnamed source who said a complete backup of the Discord server had gone to the union's barrister, and who was confident that nothing about the game had been revealed there.

Protests and legal claims

On November 6, protesters gathered outside Rockstar North and Take-Two's London office, according to GamesRadar+, with The Register reporting calls for the staff to be reinstated. By November 12, the IWGB said it had filed claims with the UK employment tribunal, alleging what it called "trade union victimization and blacklisting," Kotaku reported. Rockstar and Take-Two stood by the misconduct explanation.

What happened next

In January 2026, after a two-day hearing, a tribunal in Glasgow refused the union's request for interim relief. The judge could not conclude that the claimants were likely to show union membership was the main reason they were dismissed, according to Kotaku. By then Rockstar said the information shared in the channel included details of development schedules and game features, and it regretted being "put in a position where dismissals were necessary." The IWGB denies that anything sensitive was leaked and said it was more confident than ever of winning at a full hearing. That ruling was not a final judgment; the full case was left to be heard later. Leonidle covers the case's mention at Prime Minister's Questions, the interim ruling and the full hearing in separate posts.