Rockstar’s Legal Battle Over 31 Fired GTA 6 Developers Reaches Its Final Hearing

Grand Theft Auto VI is two months from release, but this week Rockstar Games is in a very different kind of spotlight. On Thursday, September 10, the final employment tribunal hearing between Rockstar and 31 former UK employees fired in October 2025 began at the Glasgow Tribunals Centre. The hearing is scheduled to run into mid-October, just weeks before GTA 6 launches on November 19.

Grand Theft Auto VI is currently scheduled to launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19

How We Got Here: The October 2025 Firings

On October 30, 2025, Rockstar dismissed 34 employees, 31 across its UK studios and three in Canada. Only the UK-based workers are claimants in this Glasgow tribunal, since the Canadian dismissals fall outside its jurisdiction. The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) says every one of them was a union member or organizer who had been discussing pay, working conditions and unionization in a private Discord server. Rockstar’s position has stayed consistent throughout the case: the firings were about employees sharing confidential information regarding unreleased game features, not union activity.

The Case Before This Week

The dispute has already gone through several rounds before reaching a full trial. On January 13, 2026, a tribunal denied the fired workers’ request for interim relief (pay continuing while the case was ongoing), with the judge finding insufficient evidence that union membership was the principal reason for the dismissals. Rockstar said at the time that it regretted being put in a position where dismissals were necessary, while making clear it stood by its decision.

That ruling didn’t end things. In mid-June 2026, the same tribunal rejected a separate attempt by Rockstar to have the IWGB’s blacklisting allegations struck from the case entirely, clearing the way for this month’s full hearing to cover every claim the union has raised.

Inside the Final Hearing

IWGB members and supporters gathered outside the Glasgow Tribunals Centre for a rally before the hearing opened on September 10. Former Rockstar programmer Rachel Crawford, who worked on Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2, described being fired without warning that October and told the crowd, “The modern workplace runs on fear … but today, we are fighting fear.” IWGB president Alex Marshall put it more bluntly, saying “Rockstar has tried to get away with Grand Theft Employment Rights.”

Rockstar maintains the October 2025 dismissals were unrelated to union organizing

Among the union’s longstanding allegations, first raised around January’s interim relief hearing, are claims that Rockstar’s lawyers accessed employees’ Discord messages without their knowledge, and that someone impersonated a staff member to covertly monitor the server where organizing discussions took place. One of the fired workers, Will Mesilane, says he was forced to return to Australia after Rockstar withdrew sponsorship of his UK work visa. Rockstar has not issued a new public statement addressing the union’s claims so far this week.

Where This Leaves GTA 6

In the weeks after the firings, more than 200 current Rockstar employees signed statements backing their former colleagues, and the case has since drawn comment from UK politicians, including Edinburgh West MP Christine Jardine and, at Prime Minister’s Questions, Keir Starmer himself, who called it “a deeply concerning case” and said the government would look into it. The IWGB has explicitly asked fans not to boycott Grand Theft Auto VI over the dispute, asking instead for donations to its legal fund. With the hearing running into mid-October, weeks ahead of GTA 6’s November 19 release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, a ruling could land before launch day, though a case of this size doesn’t always produce an immediate verdict once the evidence wraps.

For everything Rockstar has shown of the game itself, check out our recap of the GTA 6 Extended Look and how the reveal sent PS5 and Xbox sales soaring in the UK.

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Picture Source: Rockstar Games