There is a version of this story where fans decide the right response to a labour dispute is to not buy the game. The people at the centre of it have now asked, directly and on camera, that you don't do that.
On August 18, the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) published a video in which workers dismissed by Rockstar set out their case — and explicitly reject the idea of a Grand Theft Auto VI boycott.
Their framing is hard to argue with: they spent years of their working lives on this game, and a boycott punishes the thing they built.
"We Want You to Help Us Fight"
The message in the video is that a sales protest is not what the workers are asking for. Instead of skipping the game, they are pointing supporters toward a T-shirt fundraiser covering legal costs ahead of next month's hearing.
The union's own summary of the ask is that fans should help win justice for the workers and defend the right of workers everywhere to organise — not withhold a purchase.
It is an unusual position to take publicly, and it is worth understanding why it makes sense. A boycott is a blunt instrument that would hit the game's reception and, by extension, the credited work of the very people bringing the claim. Legal costs, by contrast, are a concrete number that supporters can actually move.
The Tribunal Starts September 10
The dispute goes to a full hearing shortly, and the dates matter because they land right before launch.
- 34 workers were dismissed — 31 in the UK (Edinburgh, Dundee and Lincoln) and three in Canada — on October 30–31, 2025.
- The full tribunal runs September 10 to October 15, 2026, concluding roughly a month before GTA 6 releases.
- The IWGB is seeking reinstatement, full back pay, and formal union recognition across Rockstar's major UK sites.
- An earlier request for interim relief was rejected in January 2026, and a preliminary ruling allowed the dismissed workers to bring blacklisting claims at the full hearing.
Both Positions, Stated Fairly
This is an active legal case, and nothing in it has been decided.
Rockstar's position is that the dismissals followed the sharing of confidential company information — specifically, that the employees discussed game details, development timelines and IT security matters in Discord channels, contrary to a zero-tolerance policy on leaks.
The IWGB's position is that the workers were targeted for union organising, and that they were dismissed without warning, without representation, without evidence put to them and without an opportunity to respond — with gross misconduct recorded against their names.
A tribunal exists precisely to determine which account holds up. Until it rules, both remain claims.
Why It Lands Now
The timing of the video is not accidental. The hearing opens in September, the game arrives in November, and attention on Rockstar is currently at its highest point in years.
If the union succeeds, Rockstar would be pushed toward becoming only the second UK games studio with a formally recognised union. That is a significant outcome for the industry regardless of how anyone feels about the game.
For fans, the ask is unusually simple, and it comes from the people with the strongest possible standing to make it: play the game, and if you want to help, help the case.
