Rockstar Games Allegedly Fires Over 30 Employees In “Blatant and Ruthless” Union Busting

Rockstar Games fired dozens of employees involved in unionizing efforts last week, in a move that the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) described as a clear act of union busting. Unsurprisingly, Rockstar denies the claim, arguing that they were fired for “misconduct.”

According to a spokesperson for the IWGB, the company fired between 30 and 40 employees across offices in the UK and Canada last Thursday. All of the employees were apparently either members of the union or were attempting to organize. They were all part of a private Discord server aimed at labor organization.

In a statement provided to Bloomberg, IWGB president Alex Marshal said, “Rockstar has just carried out one of the most blatant and ruthless acts of union busting in the history of the games industry. This flagrant contempt for the law and for the lives of the workers who bring in their billions is an insult to their fans and the global industry.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Take-Two alleged that the firings were for “gross misconduct, and for no other reason,” and that they “fully support Rockstar’s ambitions and approach,” which is corpo speak for “despite the fact we exclusively targeted workers who were attempting to organize union efforts, we believe that UK/Canadian labor law is weak enough that we’ll get away with it.”

This is the most ruthless act of union busting in the history of the UK games industry. Yesterday, @rockstargames.com unfairly fired over 30 employees for union activity.

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We won’t back down, and we’re not scared – we will fight for every member to be reinstated.

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— IWGB Game Workers Union (@gameworkers.co.uk) October 31, 2025 at 4:01 PM

According to a UK government website, an employer is “not allowed to dismiss you or choose you for redundancy because you: are or want to be a union member or took part” or “wanted to take part in union activities.” Unfortunately, like many parts of the world, union membership in the UK has been decreasing for decades, going from 80% in 1979 to just 23.3% by 2022. Meanwhile, Canada has had a more modest, but still apparent, decline from 37.6% in 1981 to 30.4% in 2023.

That said, these last few years have seen a major push in the video game industry towards unionizing. This summer, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft team organized to become one of the biggest video game unions in the US. In general, Activision Blizzard has become a hotbed for union activity; Raven Software formed one of the first major game unions back in 2022, followed by Blizzard Albany, Blizzard’s Story and Franchise Development team, and more. Meanwhile, other studios that were acquired by Microsoft, like Zenimax Online Studios and Arkane, have also unionized.

The uptick in union activity can likely be explained by a combination of longstanding exploitative and crunch conditions in the video game industry, combined with the recent onset of mass layoffs that have seen record-high firings for several years in a row. Rockstar, in particular, has been at the center of several controversies around crunch, from an open letter made by Rockstar employee family members accusing the company of forcing 12-hour work days for 6 days a week back in 2010, to a flippant comment by lead writer Dan Houser about his team working near 100-hour work weeks.