GTA 6 Studio Rockstar Faces Protests Over Staff Firings

Rockstar Games is once again in the spotlight, this time not for Grand Theft Auto 6, but for a growing labor controversy.

Protest outside Rockstar Games North Edinburgh studio | Credit: GTABase

Last week, the company suddenly fired dozens of employees, with reports claiming it was an act of "union busting."

The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) later claims that Rockstar fired between 30 to 40 staff members to halt internal unionization efforts.

In response, the union has now organized demonstrations outside Rockstar North’s Edinburgh studio and Take-Two Interactive’s London headquarters, demanding that the affected employees be reinstated.

Rockstar and its parent company, Take-Two, have firmly denied those accusations. According to Bloomberg, a Rockstar spokesperson said the dismissals were due to “leaking company secrets,” not union activity. “This was in no way related to people’s right to join a union or engage in union activities,” the statement read.

Still, the mood among workers and supporters has been tense. At the London protest, an anonymous message from one of the dismissed employees was read aloud, describing the firing as deeply unfair: “I was dismissed without warning, without evidence, and without a chance to speak for myself. All because I talked with colleagues in a private union chat. We weren’t leaking anything or trying to harm the company. We were supporting each other, trying to understand our workplace and make it better.”

Chants of “Rockstar, Rockstar, you’re disgusting. We charge you with union busting,” echoed throughout the event.

This dispute comes at a sensitive time for Rockstar, as GTA 6 enters the final stretch of development ahead of its planned May 26, 2026 release. The studio is reportedly tightening internal security following the infamous 2022 gameplay leaks, and recent reports suggest that remote work has been scaled back to push production forward.

Whether this controversy will affect GTA 6’s development remains unclear, but one thing’s certain: Rockstar isn’t just facing scrutiny from fans this time. It’s facing its own workforce.