GTA VI developers were fired over a secret chat room mocking bosses, tribunal hears

What happened?

A group of former video game developers who worked on the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI have taken their former employer, Rockstar Games, to an employment tribunal in Glasgow, claiming they were sacked for trying to unionise.

The dispute stems from October last year, when Rockstar abruptly fired 34 workers—31 in the UK and three in Canada. Twenty-three of those based at the company's Edinburgh headquarters, Rockstar North, are now suing for unfair dismissal. They are backed by the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB), which claims the studio targeted the staff to stop them from securing collective bargaining rights.

The secret chat room

Rockstar denies the union-busting allegations, insisting the employees were dismissed for gross misconduct after sharing confidential company information in an online chat room. The studio claims developers leaked sensitive details about GTA VI features, launch timelines, and security protocols on a Discord server that was supposed to be private but actually contained over 300 people, including competitors and a journalist.

According to legal arguments presented at the tribunal, the Discord room was also used to attack and insult company executives. Rockstar's lawyers read out messages from the server where one manager was called a "c*", senior staff were described as "cowardly corporate f**", and the company's internal announcements were mocked as looking "like a shit advent calendar".

The 'watch list' claim

Dayne Oram, a former worker who helped set up and moderate the Discord server, admitted that discussions sometimes got "a bit out of hand" and that he would make different moderation decisions if he could do it again. But he denied that the messages amounted to gross misconduct. Instead, he told the tribunal he believed Rockstar had placed staff on an internal "watch list" after they signed a petition in 2023 opposing the company's return-to-office policy.

Thomas Cordrey, the lawyer representing Rockstar, questioned this theory, pointing out that there was a gap of more than two and a half years between the petition and the dismissals, and that 141 of the 154 people who signed it were not fired. Oram maintained that the petition was simply "the start of them keeping an eye on things."

For the workers involved, the sudden sackings had immediate, life-altering consequences. The union alleged that one dismissed employee, Will Mesilane, was forced to leave the UK for Australia after Rockstar revoked his work visa and reported him to the Home Office without giving him a chance to appeal. Rachel Crawford, a former programmer who worked on Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2, spoke at a rally in Glasgow as the hearing began, describing the humiliation of being escorted from the building. "The modern workplace runs on fear," she said. "We lost our jobs, our income, our community."

What is at stake?

The stakes are incredibly high for both sides. Rockstar is notoriously protective of its secrets, having suffered several high-profile leaks in recent years. A six-month delay to GTA VI, which pushed the release date to November 19 this year, wiped billions off the market value of its parent company, Take-Two Interactive.

Meanwhile, current staff are still negotiating with Rockstar for formal union recognition. If they succeed, Rockstar would become the largest unionised games studio in the UK.

The tribunal, before Judge Lucy Wiseman, is scheduled to run until October 16. The fired workers are seeking reinstatement or compensation, but they have urged fans not to boycott the upcoming game.