The build-up to GTA 6 has involved a lot of hype, delays, and — for those more in-tune with the industry — controversy. Rockstar’s recent dismissal of 34 employees for “gross misconduct” is perhaps one of the more important labor stories in the games industry this year. According to reporting from People Make Games, the layoffs stem from employees discussing Slack (a digital workspace communication platform) policy changes with non-employees in a Discord server.
Here’s the original statement from Rockstar in early November regarding the matter:
“Last week, we took action against a small number of individuals who were found to be distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum, a violation of our company policies.”
In 2022, several Rockstar employees created an invite-only Discord server. Many of the employees were from the UK, and the server even contained representatives from the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union. The server became a private space to discuss workplace conditions, and eventually, the impact of changes to Slack policies — including the shutdown of channels where staff had been discussing layoffs, workplace culture, and productivity pressures. Shortly after, 34 people from that Discord were fired.
Implications Beyond Rockstar
Almost every organization I’ve ever worked with used Slack for communication, and I’m willing to bet many of you reading this do as well. Of course, this means that studios of your favorite sports games, whether that’s EA FC 26 or MLB The Show, also rely on it, though some might use Microsoft Teams instead. Regardless, a lot of big studios are owned by publicly traded companies, operate globally, and are under increasing pressure to protect intellectual property.
All of that already creates strict NDAs and data access rules. But as unionization efforts grow across the globe, management is also tightening control over all internal communication. EA’s studios responsible for Madden, EA FC, and F1 have experienced significant layoffs from 2023 to 2025, and the same can be said for studios like Codemasters, Visual Concepts, Motorsport Games, and even Sports Interactive.
These same studios rely heavily on remote collaboration, seasonal live-service updates, and tight partner restrictions. If these recent events at Rockstar and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, set a precedent, simply discussing internal policies, workloads, or any concerns in unofficial channels might be flagged as misconduct.
Job security in the games industry is always uncertain, but with studios becoming more union-aware, how much freedom of speech do you really have? Tightening communication to prevent leaks is one thing, but doing so to prevent collective actions is borderline tyrannical.
