Fans and gamers have taken to a Reddit forum to express their skepticism of Rockstar’s defense, blaming fired staff for leaks. The Redditors believe the firings are tied to labor issues rather than policy enforcement. 

Rockstar has attempted to defend its decision to lay off about 40 of its employees, but the studio’s fans are not buying its explanation. The accusations of union busting and unfair staff treatment remain sticky as the GTA VI developer fights the fallout from its recent mass layoff. 

Rockstar Games says its recent layoffs were due to info leak

Rockstar Games, the studio behind the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI, says the employees recently laid off by the company were found to be “distributing and discussing confidential information” on a public forum, which is a violation of Rockstar’s company policies.

There has been some skepticism over those claims, but the company insists the dismissals were not related to union activity as is being speculated.

“This was in no way related to people’s right to join a union or engage in union activities,” the company said. 

The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), however, has pointed out that all the terminated employees were either already members of or organizing a union, and that they were active in a closed Discord chat where the only outsiders were labor organizers. 

They described the studio’s actions as “one of the most blatant and ruthless acts of union busting in the history of the games industry.” 

Despite Rockstar Games’ defense of its actions, many in the gaming community have expressed skepticism about their claims on social media. 

One comment on Reddit reads:

“Bruh. Firing 30-40 devs right before GTA 6 drops because they wanted to unionize? That’s wild. If the ‘gross misconduct’ claim was legit, why fire literally everyone in the union Discord at once? Timing is sus af. Rockstar makes billions off GTA and treats workers like this. Not cool.”

Doubt among fans and labor advocates 

Some believe that the timing and nature of the layoffs are suspicious. About 30 to 40 employees were fired, and their dismissal happened just as development on Grand Theft Auto VI was in a critical phase. This has caused concerns of a disruption in the release of the game. 

The policy violation cited by the company against leaking confidential info is not detailed publicly, so it’s unclear what specific misconduct the employees are involved in.

Worst of all is the apparent conspicuous correlation between the fired staff and involvement in either the Discord or the union talks. Several users expressed their thoughts about the situation on Reddit in the GTA 6 sub-Reddit. 

“The fact that HR or whoever is snooping into the employees’ private discord? Straaange.” 

Another wrote, “Every company does this if their workers try to unionize. It’s happened three times now at our company, and they shell out an exorbitant fee to them instead of just you know… paying us a little more.” 

The conversation is yet to tilt into a boycott of the company, and anticipation for the game remains high despite these issues. The IWGB has indicated it may seek legal methods or negotiate with the company to restore the dismissed employees.

Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free.