“Job theft!” — Protests outside Take-Two and Rockstar North offices as fired employees deny leaking company secrets
Blog Andrew Joseph 06 Nov , 2025 0
Fired Rockstar Games employees protested outside the UK offices of parent company Take-Two and developer Rockstar North, denying accusations of leaking company secrets and calling for their jobs to be reinstated.
On November 6, rallies organized by the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) were held outside Rockstar's offices at Take-Two House in London and Barclay House in Edinburgh, Scotland. As many as 40 employees were fired for allegedly “distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum.”
Videos of the protest posted on social media showed harsh criticism of Take-Two and Rockstar's actions, with fired employees holding signs and reading prepared statements demanding their reinstatement and back pay.
Call for reinstatement and compensation for unpaid wages pic.twitter.com/g8zlUFiCno
— GTABase.com (@GTABase) November 6, 2025
last week, Grand Theft Auto 6 studio reportedly laid off 30 to 40 employees The IWGB claimed the move was a “blatant” and “callous” act of union-busting. At the time, Rockstar parent company Take-Two issued a statement insisting the dismissal was due to “serious misconduct and no other reason.”
According to Bloombergthe fired workers, all based in the UK and Canada, were also members of a private union chat group on Discord and were either union members themselves or trying to unionize within Rockstar. The IWGB claimed that the staff were expressly dismissed for their union activities.
a new one Bloomberg The report contains the latest statement from Take-Two, which maintains that the fired employees leaked company secrets in a “public forum.”
“Last week, we took action against a small number of individuals who were caught distributing and discussing confidential information in public forums in violation of our company policies,” a Take-Two statement read. “This has nothing to do with people's rights to join a union or engage in union activity.”
According to the IWGB, the only non-Rockstar personnel in the private union Discord are union organizers. IWGB boss Alex Marshall issued the following statement to IGN:
“Rockstar continues to avoid the real reason for these firings: They are afraid of hard-working employees privately discussing exercising their rights for a fairer workplace and a collective voice. Management has shown they don't care about GTA 6's delays and are prioritizing a fight against the union, targeting those who make the game.
“In recent years, Rockstar executives have benefited from £443 million in tax breaks while showing complete disregard for the law or the livelihoods of their employees. They have chosen profits over employees and fans of the game every time.
“The only non-Rockstar employee in the union Discord channel is a union organizer.”
A fired Rockstar employee read a statement: pic.twitter.com/wkIDU28NRJ
— Ben (@videotechuk_) November 6, 2025
A sacked employee protesting today said what they had been treated was “grossly unfair” and claimed they were sacked “without warning, without evidence and without a chance to speak for themselves”.
The fired employee continued: “This all happened because I was talking to a co-worker in a private union chat. We did not leak any information or try to harm the company. We supported each other in trying to understand our workplace and make it better. Losing your job because of this is deeply unfair. No one should be penalized for being in a union or talking honestly about their job.”
Ross Greer, co-leader of the Scottish Green Party and MP for the West of Scotland, backed the protests on social media, saying: “Reinstate these measures now and then go around the table and give your workers the wages and conditions they deserve to bring you billions of dollars in revenue.”
this @scottishgreens Stand with dozens of laid-off workers @RockstarGames Exercise the right to form a trade union.
Reinstate them now, then go around the table and give your workers the wages and conditions they deserve and make you billions. pic.twitter.com/jENH89QNYg
— Ross Greer (@Ross_Greer) November 6, 2025
The protests took place ahead of the expected release of GTA 6 next May. While Rockstar's pre-release marketing has so far been limited to two trailers and a series of screenshots, after suffering A lot of leaks of “GTA 6” in development 2022, and GTA 6 trailer 1 released early The following year. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick called the 2022 leak “very unfortunate… We do take incidents like this very seriously.”
He added: “There's no evidence that any material assets were taken, which is a good thing, and the leak certainly won't have any impact on development or anything like that, but it's very disappointing and makes us even more vigilant about issues related to cybersecurity.”
Last year, the studio Requiring employees to come to the office five days a weekciting a desire to increase productivity and safety. The decision is Criticized by workers affiliated with IWGBhe said Rockstar broke its promise and was forced to return to the office, accusing the studio of refusing to engage with employees about the issue.
Image source: Ross Greer/Twitter.
Wesley is IGN News Director. Find him on Twitter: @wyp100. You can contact Wesley at [email protected] or privately at [email protected].