In late October, Rockstar Games terminated more than 30 employees across its UK and Canadian studios in a single week, citing “gross misconduct.” The sudden purge, which affected QA testers, artists, coders, and other roles, was initially presented internally as routine enforcement of confidentiality rules. A new video report, however, paints a starkly different picture: the dismissals were the direct result of staff discussing the company’s own internal communication restrictions on a private, union-protected Discord server.
A detailed investigation by People Make Games has disclosed that the conversations took place on an invite-only Discord server created in 2022 exclusively for Rockstar employees and organisers from the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) Game Workers branch. Access was tightly controlled; new members had to be verified as current Rockstar staff, and the server explicitly banned discussion of unreleased game content, code, assets, or any material that could be considered a leak. Instead, its stated purpose was to allow workers to talk freely about pay, bonuses, remote-work policies, and other terms and conditions—discussions that are legally protected under the UK’s Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 and Equality Act 2010.
The trigger came in mid-October when Rockstar management abruptly overhauled its workplace Slack instance in what staff quickly dubbed the “Slack purge.” Dozens of light-hearted or community channels—ranging from pet photos to mental-health support—were deleted without warning. Employees were forbidden from reacting to messages with anything other than standard thumbs-up/down emojis; the once-popular seedling emoji (used industry-wide to acknowledge layoffs at other studios) was disabled. Even profile status symbols, such as the Palestinian flag, were prohibited on the grounds that they constituted political expression unrelated to work.
Unable to use work email outside office hours and barred from discussing the changes on the now-heavily policed Slack, staff forwarded the official policy announcement to the IWGB Discord server and began analysing its implications after work. People Make Games' source reveals threads dissecting bonus transparency, the loss of informal support networks, and whether the new rules disproportionately affected marginalised employees. No screenshots of game builds, marketing plans, or Grand Theft Auto VI assets appear in the leaked exchanges.
Within days, an anonymous tip—allegedly from another server member—alerted Rockstar management to the existence of the conversation. An internal investigation followed with unusual speed. Affected employees were summoned to individual video calls, informed they were being let go for “serious breach of confidentiality,” and immediately cut off from company systems. Most report never being shown specific evidence or given an opportunity to respond—standard practice in UK unfair-dismissal claims.
The IWGB swiftly filed employment-tribunal claims on behalf of the dismissed workers and accused Rockstar of coordinated union-busting. Union president Alex Marshall stated: “What we’ve seen time and time again is that Rockstar are desperately trying to prevent people from being able to communicate. And all these workers have ever been trying to do is to discuss their pay and conditions in order to try and improve them so they can deliver a game that’s loved by millions.”
In response, more than 200 current Rockstar employees—roughly a tenth of the studio’s remaining UK workforce—signed an open letter circulated internally that described the firings as a “blatant unapologetic act of vicious union-busting.” The letter demanded immediate reinstatement, restoration of the terminated workers’ access, and a rollback of the Slack restrictions that sparked the controversy.
The case has already reached the UK Parliament. Last week, Labour MP Clive Lewis raised the dismissals during a Commons debate on precarious work in the games sector, calling the episode “a chilling example of how far some employers will go to stifle legitimate trade-union activity.”
Rockstar Games and parent company Take-Two Interactive have declined to comment on individual employment matters or the People Make Games investigation, reiterating only that they take “confidentiality obligations extremely seriously.”
Legal observers note that if the tribunal finds the Discord discussions were protected trade-union activity, the dismissals would be automatically unfair under UK law, potentially exposing Rockstar to substantial compensation awards and reputational damage at a sensitive moment—just months ahead of the heavily anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI.
For now, the former employees remain locked out, the Discord server has been shuttered by its administrators to protect remaining members, and Rockstar’s silence has only amplified calls for transparency from one of the industry’s most secretive studios.
