Behind the game
The Rockstar Dismissals and the IWGB Dispute
Two accounts of the same events that cannot both be right, and a five-week hearing now under way in Glasgow to decide between them. This page sets out who says what, and attributes every line.
How this page is written. This is a live legal dispute involving real people and contested facts. Nothing below is presented as settled unless a court or tribunal has settled it. Rockstar's position and the union's position are given separately and attributed, and where they contradict each other, the page says so rather than picking a side.
What is not in dispute
- Confirmed
In October 2025, Rockstar Games dismissed a group of employees in the United Kingdom and Canada. Reporting puts the number between 30 and 34.
CBC News, Game Informer and others, November 2025
Everything after that is contested.
Rockstar's account
Rockstar has said the employees were dismissed for breaching confidentiality — that they had, in the company's words, distributed and discussed confidential information “including specific game features from upcoming and unannounced titles” in a public forum, which it identified as a Discord channel.
Rockstar said that channel included non-Rockstar employees, among them a games journalist, an employee of a rival developer, and multiple anonymous members. The company has also said it does not know who was in the Discord.
The union's account
The Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain, through its Game Workers branch, has rejected that characterisation. The union called Rockstar's justification “littered with falsehoods and disinformation” and said the company had given “multiple, conflicting reasons”.
Its position is that Rockstar was mischaracterising “workers speaking about their working conditions in a private forum as ‘leaking information’”. A union communications officer, Jake Thomas, denied that games journalists participated, and said the discussions concerned working conditions rather than game features.
The union has characterised the dismissals as union-busting. Reporting on the September 2026 hearing indicates the Discord discussions at the centre of the case concerned a new company Slack policy — that is, working conditions rather than game content. Rockstar's account and the union's account of what was discussed remain directly opposed.
Quoted by the union at the opening of the full hearing: Jason Lewis, one of the former employees — “None of us imagined that talking to each other about our working conditions would turn our lives upside down.” IWGB president Alex Marshall — “We believe Rockstar has tried to get away with Grand Theft Employment Rights.”
What has actually been decided
-
13 January 2026
Glasgow employment tribunal: interim relief refused
The tribunal denied the dismissed workers' application for interim relief — emergency pay pending a full hearing — ruling they had not shown a sufficient likelihood of success on the claim that the dismissals were due to union activity.
Rockstar's statement: “The Glasgow Employment Tribunal has rejected the union's application for interim relief. We welcome the decision, which is consistent with Rockstar's position throughout. We regret that we were put in a position where dismissals were necessary, but we stand by our course of action as supported by the outcome of this hearing.”
The IWGB's response: “That we did not secure an interim relief order means the especially stringent conditions required for this kind of hearing were not met, but does nothing to suggest that Rockstar will not be found guilty of unfair dismissal when the case goes to trial.”
-
30 June 2026
Union applies for recognition
Rockstar workers, through the IWGB, formally applied for voluntary recognition of the union at Rockstar, citing pay transparency, flexible working and reducing crunch as priorities. This is the union's own account, published by the union.
-
19 June 2026
Blacklisting claims survive a strike-out attempt
The tribunal refused Rockstar's application to strike out allegations that the company acted to prevent former employees from finding future work because of their union involvement. That ruling let the blacklisting claims go to the full hearing, and it is why this case is broader than the one reported in January.
IWGB Game Workers Branch chair Spring McParlin-Jones called it “a significant setback for Rockstar's efforts to evade scrutiny”.
-
10 September 2026
The full hearing opens
At the Glasgow Tribunal Centre, 3 Atlantic Quay. Listed into mid-October — roughly five weeks, sitting weekdays. The IWGB puts the number of claimants at 31.
Three strands are before the tribunal: unfair dismissal on grounds of trade union activity, blacklisting, and dismissal “without disciplinary process or right of appeal”. The claimants seek reinstatement or compensation. Our report on the opening.
What the January ruling did and did not decide. Interim relief has a deliberately high bar — it is emergency relief granted only where success at the eventual hearing looks very likely. Refusing it is not a finding that the dismissals were lawful, and granting it would not have been a finding that they were unlawful. No tribunal has yet made a finding of fact on the central question of why these people were dismissed.
Why this belongs on a site about the game
Two reasons, and neither is that it is dramatic.
The first is that it is part of the record of how this game was made, and the timeline matters: the dismissals came three weeks before the second delay was announced. Nobody has established any connection between those events, and this page is not suggesting one — but a complete development timeline that omitted October 2025 would be an incomplete one.
The second is that coverage of this dispute has been unusually bad. Both sides have been quoted selectively depending on the outlet, and the January ruling in particular has been reported both as a Rockstar vindication and as a meaningless procedural step. It is neither.
What we do not know
- No word
Why the dismissals actually happened. The two accounts are irreconcilable and no tribunal has ruled on the substance.
Contested - No word
The exact number of people dismissed. Reporting ranges from 30 to 34 and Rockstar has not published a figure.
Not disclosed - Confirmed
The full hearing opened on 10 September 2026 at the Glasgow Tribunal Centre and is listed into mid-October.
IWGB, 7 September 2026 - No word
The outcome. The hearing is under way and no judgment has been issued.
Hearing in progress - Confirmed
Current Rockstar employees have formed the Rockstar Games Workers Union and are seeking formal recognition — a separate process from the tribunal.
Reported September 2026
The hearing is under way and is listed to 16 October. This page will be updated when the tribunal reports. If it rules against Rockstar, that will be here. If it rules for Rockstar, that will be here too.
One useful thing about this particular dispute: employment tribunal decisions in Great Britain are published on the UK government's tribunal decisions service. The outcome will therefore be readable in full, in the tribunal's own words, rather than only through whichever side's press release reaches you first. When it is published, this page will link to it directly.
Related
Sources
- Judge denies interim pay for fired Rockstar employees — PC Gamer, 13 January 2026, for both statements.
- Rockstar and the IWGB on the Discord claims — TechRadar, December 2025.
- Rockstar Games accused of union-busting after layoffs — Game Informer, 6 November 2025.
- Rockstar union recognition — IWGB, 2026. The union’s own account of its recognition application.
- Final hearing in legal battle over GTA firings to begin this week — IWGB, 7 September 2026.
- Rockstar blacklisting claims cleared for trial — GameLuster, on the 19 June 2026 strike-out ruling.
- GTA firings tribunal final hearing begins — New Game Network, 11 September 2026.
Every factual claim above is labelled as confirmed or unconfirmed and traced to the source listed here. Where Rockstar has said nothing, this page says so rather than filling the gap.