Rockstar makes more detailed claims about firing GTA 6 developers

Rockstar Games has covered the latest wave. grand theft auto 6 Fired the developer and strengthened the official explanation of why the employee was fired with more detailed allegations. All unions involved in the incident denied it. The key issue in the ongoing dispute is GTA 6 Developers were fired for trying to unionize or for leaking company secrets.

The Purge at the end of October 2025 resulted in 34 people being laid off, 31 of whom were based in the UK and the remaining three working at the game maker's Toronto studio. At the time, Rockstar said: GTA 6 Developers who leaked company secrets via a private Discord server run by the Independent Workers' Confederation of Great Britain (IWGB) have been sacked. The IWGB rejected the claims as baseless, countering that the dismissals were a clear case of union destruction. A subsequent report by People Make Games, which interviewed IWGB officials, revealed some of the messages that may have been received. GTA 6 Developers were fired, including in one case where an employee posted a copy of an auto-generated email about a Slack policy change that potentially violated company policy.

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GTA 6 developers have reportedly been fired for leaking 'game features for upcoming and unannounced titles'.

Rockstar has now suggested that the shooting had nothing to do with the incident. GTA 6 Developers discussed Slack's recent partial ban on emoji use while also rejecting claims of union-busting activity. “Rockstar Games has taken action against a small group of individuals across the UK and around the world who have been distributing and discussing confidential information (including certain game features for upcoming and unannounced titles) in public forums, in violation of our company policies and legal obligations,” a company spokesperson told IGN. “Any claim that these terminations were related to union membership or activity is completely false and misleading.”

Rockstar says the Union Discord Server had journalists and rival developers as members.

Rockstar also claims that members of the IWGB Discord server include gaming journalists and employees of other developers. The company claims it only fired employees found to have discussed confidential information, noting that there are employees who spoke favorably about joining a union on servers but were found not to have violated company policy and remained employed. Rockstar also confirmed previous reports that other employees who were members of the Discord server brought the situation to their attention, but expressed concern about their colleagues' behavior after seeing the alleged leak. The case recently caught the attention of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who described it as “very concerning” and suggested the British government would investigate the incident. GTA 6 Developer fired.

Rockstar Games has taken action in the UK and globally against a small group of individuals who have been distributing and discussing confidential information (including certain game features for upcoming and unannounced titles) in public forums.

IWGB Coalition Rejects Rockstar's Latest Claims

IWGB communications representative Jake Thomas rejected Rockstar's latest claims. Responding to claims that game features were leaked on the Discord server, he said the union doesn't even know what that means. In response to the comment that a gaming reporter was involved, Thomas said the individual in question was a union representative and gaming worker who had previously “written a few articles for the newspaper” but participated in the server in that capacity. He added that the same applies to all members (non-Rockstar employees) of the server's Rockstar employee channel (where prospective union members can learn about union membership). In a separate statement, the IWGB said “Rockstar's recent statement is full of falsehoods and disinformation” and accused the company of attempting “reverse engineering” to justify the firings. GTA 6 The developer gives “various and conflicting reasons” for the October 2025 layoffs.

Rockstar responds to IWGB's response and claims it proves the point.

Rockstar later released a response to IWGB's rebuttal. “As we suspected, and as evidenced by the response to our statement, they have no idea who was on this Discord,” a company spokesperson told IGN. Although I did not elaborate on these ideas. IWGB launched legal action against Rockstar in November 2025, seeking reinstatement of the fired employees. The union has said it will file a claim for unfair dismissal if its demands are not met and is currently raising funds through the Action Network to support its legal challenge.