No Relief For Fired Rockstar Devs
As gamers eagerly anticipate the release of ‘Grand Theft Auto VI’, former employees of Rockstar North are awaiting justice.
More than 30 employees of the Edinburgh-based Rockstar North studio that develops the highly popular ‘GTA’ series were terminated late last year. Rockstar maintains the employees were fired for ‘gross misconduct’ relating to leaking confidential information in a Discord chat.
Rockstar has a notoriously strict zero-tolerance approach to leaks, defending the terminations as lawful and within their rights. However, the former employees accuse Rockstar of ‘union-busting’, claiming they were fired for union-organising activities after Rockstar management gained access to the Discord and viewed the chats.
Of the 34 employees terminated, 29 are members of the game worker’s branch of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB). Among the Discord chats were discussions about poor working conditions at the studio, impossible workloads, and high rates of burnout among staff.
The former employees have taken legal action against Rockstar to challenge their dismissal, with support from the IWGB. The case, which has become a flashpoint in the gaming industry, found its way to the UK employment tribunal for a preliminary hearing last month.
The claimants were hoping to secure ‘interim relief’ from Rockstar until facing them in court, a request that was denied by the judge. The tribunal could not conclude the likeliness of the terminations being based on trade union membership, mentioning the bar for attaining interim relief is high.
Though the decision was welcomed by Rockstar, it was mentioned that proper processes for handling terminations were not followed, such as disciplinary hearings, suspensions, or allowing claimants an opportunity to respond to allegations.
The Discord channel had 350-plus members, including ex-employees of Rockstar as well as games journalists. Rockstar argued the discussions were of a nature that someone with knowledge of the industry would be able to glean inside information about projects in development. In particular, Rockstar were so concerned about the leak of a so-called ‘top secret’ feature in development that they requested the judge read the evidence in private.
Rockstar is among the most profitable and powerful publishers in AAA gaming, largely owing to the ultra-successful Grand Theft Auto franchise.
Rockstar Games Inc. was founded in 1998 by Sam and Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, Gary Foreman, and Jamie King as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive. Rockstar grew out of several business and asset acquisitions by Take-Two, including publisher BMG Interactive and UK-based developer DMA Design, which would become Rockstar North.
BMG and DMA had massive success with the first instalment of ‘Grand Theft Auto’ in 1997, leading Take-Two to acquire the intellectual property and form Rockstar Games Inc. Since then, ‘GTA’ has become Rockstar’s flagship series and one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. The last instalment, ‘GTA V’ is the second-best selling video game of all time.
In November, Rockstar will finally release ‘GTA VI’ after years of successive delays and setbacks. There is high expectation it will set a new industry benchmark for open-world gaming, with unprecedented levels of interactivity, intensely detailed graphics, and a dynamic, highly reactive environment.
Industry and consumer hype about the impending release of ‘GTA VI’ is likely to overshadow this latest chapter in Rockstar’s spotted history of industrial relations disputes. AAA studios are well-known for breeding an overly demanding and oppressive work environment, straining staff resources in order to meet near-impossible development deadlines.
Crunch culture is a systemic issue within the video games industry that is often accepted and discussed yet rarely addressed. As the release date for a game approaches, studio staff are expected to work excessive, usually poorly compensated, overtime to remain on schedule. It’s not uncommon during crunch for developers to work between 60-100 hours in a week, sleep at their desks, and rarely leave the office.
The desired result is a critically acclaimed, AAA video game experience for consumers and a healthy profit boost for the company. But at what cost to the people who sacrifice their lives to achieve it.
The plight of 34 employees is unlikely to derail Rockstar’s ‘GTA VI’ gravy train, nor will it convince millions of avid GTA fans around the world to boycott the series. Nevertheless, it should irk our collective conscience that people are being exploited for the sake of our enjoyment.
We eschew slavery as an outmoded construct, shun sweat shops as inhumane, and purport to possess a higher level of humanity than previous generations. Yet, when it comes to producing a high quality ultraviolent video game, exploitation suddenly doesn’t just become acceptable, it is expected.
It is the same devious mentality that fuels the music, film, and entertainment industries, where people are viewed as expendable resources. The same mentality that made slavery the social norm for thousands of years – the cost of doing business.
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It’s within this quagmire of Rockstar’s dubious business practices that the issue of its Australian division bubbles to the murky surface.
Through aggressive expansion, Rockstar now boasts a global influence with studios all around the world, including Australia. Current president of Rockstar Games is Sam Houser, a close associate of Brendan McNamara who is now the head of the newly acquired Rockstar Australia.
Brendan McNamara is the former creative directive for Team Bondi, the studio that developed Rockstar’s popular detective game ‘L.A. Noire’, released in 2011. After that Team Bondi then split from Rockstar following allegations of mistreatment and poor working conditions, the studio entering administration shortly thereafter.
McNamara earned a reputation as a difficult person to work for and with during the development of ‘L.A. Noire’, acting unilaterally and often abusing his rank to make desired changes to the game without consultation.
In 2013, McNamara founded Video Games Deluxe and continued to collaborate on Rockstar titles, including the 2017 re-releases of ‘L.A. Noire’, ‘L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files’, and on recent upgrades to ‘Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition’. Video Games Deluxe was acquired by Rockstar in 2025 and McNamara stepped into the lead role.
In stark contrast, the 34 ousted Rockstar North employees will have to wait for their day in court without compensation.
