Last week, GTA 6 developers Rockstar Games suddenly fired 31 of their UK-based workers as well as three based in Canada – initially on a charge of “gross misconduct”, then for the act of sharing “confidential information on a public forum”. According to the UK’s IWGB Game Workers union, which all the dismissed UK-based employees were members of, the real reason for the firing was to stop the employees unionising. Since the firings, the IWGB has launched legal proceedings to reinstate all affected UK-based employees, while also holding protests in solidarity.
Yesterday, I attended a protest held outside Rockstar North’s offices in Edinburgh – a small but spirited gathering of people chanting slogans like “Say sorry, be nice, stand up for worker’s rights”. There were a few politicians in attendance and some creative GTA-themed signs, including one with five stars alluding to the game’s wanted system, which had two stars filled up in yellow when I first arrived. By the time I left, it had been completely filled in.
