Ex-employees based in the UK sue GTA VI developer Rockstar for unfair dismissal

A group of developers working on the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI in the UK are suing Rockstar Games over unfair dismissal claims.

Former staff have begun an employment tribunal in Scotland against the US software giant, claiming they were unfairly sacked by their employer.

The group, who worked for Edinburgh-based Rockstar North, are claiming they were fired for trade union activities.

They are being represented by the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB).

Some 34 people in the UK and Canada are believed to have been dismissed in October 2025 and 23 are taking part in the tribunal.

Rockstar North is a studio of Rockstar Games, which is owned by New York-based software company, Take-Two Interactive.

The company has said it will "vigorously" contest the allegations and accused the ex-employees of breaching the company's confidentiality rules by discussing sensitive information on a Discord server.

Grand Theft Auto VI, also known as GTA 6, is the latest instalment in the blockbuster video game series and is due to be released on 19 November.

Pre-orders of the game are already thought to have been worth hundreds of millions.

The tribunal began in Glasgow on Thursday, with legal discussion taking place in private in the morning.

Ahead of the hearing, workers and supporters held a rally outside Glasgow Tribunals Centre.

Jason Lewis, former Rockstar employee and IWGB member, said: "For almost a year, the truth about what happened to us has been buried by Rockstar and surrounded by speculation. Now we finally get the chance to put it on the record.

"None of us imagined that talking to each other about our working conditions would turn our lives upside down and catapult us into the centre of a global media storm.

"As the world prepares for the release of GTA VI, we are reliving the heartbreak of being thrown out of a project we poured so much of our lives into.

"We lost our jobs, our income, our community and the chance to see the game through to release after spending years helping to build it. It was devastating."

In an opening argument later in the day, the company said the claimants had been "vituperatively disparaging and defaming" Rockstar.

However, Jack Hoxby, 29, said he and the other claimants are "very much denying" Rockstar's argument.

"We've basically been alleging it was union busting since [we were dismissed]," Mr Hoxby said.

"They're alleging that we were either disparaging the company or talking about confidential information in a Discord that was accessible to the public, which we're obviously very much denying."

IWGB has said the workers were part of a private Discord channel and were dismissed on 30 October last year.

The video games publisher has said the workers were dismissed for "gross misconduct".

It also said the employees were axed for sharing confidential information, rather than trade union activity.

In Rockstar's opening note, the company said it was "subject to regular assaults on its security and systems" and was "hypervigilant" about its confidentiality and even had to put privacy films on its buildings after drones were used to try and photograph through office windows.

The company's statement added that the "exceptional value and prestige" of GTA VI partly explains its "extreme protectiveness" towards it.

The legal submission stated there were a series of abusive messages about bosses and the company's proposals.

The statement said: "At any moment a screenshot or forwarding of any one of these messages by any one of the 350 users, or the publishing of an article about them by a journalist, could have generated enormously damaging publicity and hit market confidence and the Take-Two share price."

The company also alleged that claimants were "candidly referencing game features - one of the most closely guarded secrets of the company" and circulating "many, many pieces of information that explicitly or implicitly referred to the state of development of GTA VI and therefore whether it was on track or behind the publicly announced release schedule".

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The firm argued: "Most recently, in the last few weeks, a hacking group attempted to blackmail the respondent [Rockstar]".

It continued: "The danger of Discord was, specifically, very well known to the claimants."

The company said that Discord has much lower security barriers than the company's own systems and that the use of Discord was blocked on the company's IT systems.

It urged the tribunal to consider the "shocking" content of the Discord posts, adding: "In the face of the appalling content of the Discord which placed the respondent at enormous financial and reputational risk, the tribunal need look no further for the reason for the dismissals."

Lawyers for the claimants are expected to allege that workers were unlawfully blacklisted and targeted for their union activities.

They are also expected to dispute the suggestion that confidential information was shared and that members of the group were disparaging the company.

A spokesperson for the video games firm said: "Rockstar Games' position has been clear and consistent throughout.

"Individuals across the UK and Canada were dismissed for gross misconduct following the sharing of confidential company information, not because of alleged trade union membership or activity.

"We reject the claims and will defend them vigorously before the tribunal."

The hearing continues.

(c) Sky News 2026: Ex-employees based in the UK sue GTA VI developer Rockstar for unfair dismissal