Grand Theft Auto studio Rockstar Games is on top of the industry, but a new round of lay-offs is raising concerns about its practices. Gaming industry lay-offs have been frequent as of late, hitting gigantic publishers and indie studios alike. With continual profits pouring in from GTA Online and GTA 6 on the horizon, however, Rockstar was an unlikely candidate.
As reported by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, Rockstar laid off "between 30 and 40 staffers" yesterday, and the president of the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain has decried the move as a "one of the blatant and ruthless acts of union busting." A spokesperson for Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar's parent company, disputes this claim, alleging that the firings were in response to "gross misconduct."
According to a union spokesperson, all affected employees were either union members or attempting to unionize, and they all participated in a trade union Discord group. Rockstar has not yet addressed these details, nor has the studio provided any other details on the nature of the employees' alleged "gross misconduct."
The likeliest explanation for Rockstar's reasoning would be some kind of security concern, as leaks have been a major problem for GTA 6 in...
