GTA 6 Studio in Crisis? Rockstar Accused of Mass Firing to Crush Union
Official information on GTA 6 may be scarce, but here’s some news Rockstar Games could have done without: just months before the blockbuster’s release, the firm is accused of having unfairly dismissed nearly 40 employees.
Parent company Take-Two mentions “gross misconduct”, but for the Independent Worker’s Union of Great Britain (IWGB), it’s more about a desire to prevent workers from joining a union. We summarize it all for you.
Bloomberg’s Initial Revelations
Perhaps you hadn’t followed the case from the beginning, but the details dropped just a week ago in the columns of Bloomberg. According to sources from journalist Jason Schreier, between 30 and 40 Rockstar employees in the UK and Canada had suddenly lost their jobs by a decision from their management.
It’s safe to whisper that neither the timing nor the event itself seemed very glamorous for a company that still claims values of “kindness” and “teamwork” (sic). Apparently, the fired individuals were actually part of a private Discord group intended to discuss union matters within their company. In fact, all were either members of the IWGB or organizing to join them. Behavior that obviously wouldn’t have pleased the higher-ups.
An Accusation of “Gross Misconduct” Without Explanation
The thing is, on his end, Alan Lewis, the spokesperson for Take-Two, decided to defend his subsidiary, claiming to have fired only a small number of employees, and this for “gross misconduct“.
While one might already take issue with the “small” epithet used to describe nearly forty individuals, the lack of detail regarding the nature of this famous misconduct didn’t exactly inspire confidence in this version of events. To make matters worse, and as recalled by Gamekult, the site GameDeveloper, which was able to speak with the IWGB, had explained that at the time of the dismissal, this reason had not even been brought to the attention of the unfortunate employees.
Towards Leaks of Confidential Information?
But the latest twist in this affair dates just from this morning, and this time comes directly from Rockstar. According to the developer, the employees in question allegedly shared confidential information on a public forum; their dismissal would thus have nothing to do with their union activity.
A statement that, quite frankly, we find a bit suspicious here but which echoes the massive leak of 2022, which had largely revealed the broad strokes of GTA 6. One detail, however: the latter was the result of an attack by an external hacker, and not the result of an internal indiscretion involving more than thirty people.
In any case, the IWGB has already retorted that the only external contacts of the fired employees were with union organizers. Suffice to say, it will take more to make them back down. Whatever the case, what we can sadly affirm is that the studio is not known for having the most respectful history with its workers. And despite a grace period, which followed accusations of intensive crunch on Red Dead Redemption 2, this had been more recently undermined by the forced return to the office five days a week for remote-working employees. Old habits die hard.
Scarlet Deng has been dispensing JV advice and recommendations for many years, and her ancestral wisdom is invaluable. Some might be tempted to classify her as a "new recruit", but given her PC knowledge and her passion for hairy RPGs, her admirers recognize her more as a "teacher" or "senpai". In fact, here we simply prefer "grandma" to better reflect her benevolence: since her reflexes have gone soft, Doom Eternal has largely given way to Stardew Valley...
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