A group of former Rockstar Games developers currently locked in a legal battle with the studio has a message for players weighing whether to skip GTA 6 in protest: don't.
In a video released through the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB), several of the more than 30 developers dismissed from Rockstar last October laid out exactly how they'd like fans to show support — and boycotting the biggest game of the year isn't on the list.
"We're going to make this easy for you," the fired workers say in the video. "Don't boycott GTA 6. Win justice for the people who helped make it."
"We Poured Years of Our Lives Into This"
The dismissed developers say they spent years on GTA 6 before being let go, and they don't want that work — or the game itself — to become collateral damage in their fight with Rockstar.
Jack Hoxby, an IWGB Game Workers branch member and one of the terminated employees, put it plainly: they poured years of their lives into helping build the game, and they don't want fans turning away from it. What they want instead is help fighting for justice.
The group has been explicit that the request isn't a pass for Rockstar. "That doesn't mean we want you to let Rockstar off the hook," the developers said, pointing fans toward other ways to back their cause — including buying branded merchandise that helps fund the union's legal costs.
The Backstory
The dispute traces back to October 2025, when Rockstar abruptly dismissed more than 30 staff members who had been organizing and unionizing at the studio. The fired workers and the IWGB have called it one of the most blatant acts of union-busting in the games industry's history, alleging they were dismissed without warning, representation, or any real chance to respond to the accusations against them.
Rockstar and parent company Take-Two have told a different story, maintaining that the terminations were the result of "gross misconduct" — specifically, leaking confidential company information in a public forum — and denying that union activity had anything to do with the firings.
The fallout has included protests outside Rockstar's Edinburgh studio and Take-Two's London office, alongside a separate push by current Rockstar employees seeking formal union recognition and an end to crunch-heavy development cycles.
Legally, the fired workers have already scored a win: a preliminary UK tribunal ruled they can bring their "blacklisting" allegations — accusing Rockstar of compiling and acting on information about workers' union involvement — to a full trial. That trial is set to begin September 10, just over two months before GTA 6 launches on November 19.
Why Not Call for a Boycott?
For a group suing its former employer over its treatment of workers, urging people to buy that employer's flagship product might seem counterintuitive. But the developers' logic is straightforward: the game itself is the product of their labor, and they don't want their fight with management to cost them credit for work they're proud of — or to be the reason fans miss out on a game some are already calling one of the most anticipated releases in entertainment history.
It's also a practical calculation. Preorder numbers suggest a boycott movement, even a well-intentioned one, was never likely to make much of a dent — GTA 6 has already racked up enormous preorder demand ahead of launch. Rather than fight that tide, the fired developers are redirecting fan energy toward something that could actually move the needle: public pressure and financial support ahead of a trial that will decide whether Rockstar's version of events holds up in court.
With the September 10 hearing now less than a month out — and GTA 6 arriving on PS5 and Xbox just over two months later — the case is shaping up to run in parallel with the biggest marketing push of Rockstar's history, keeping the labor dispute in the headlines right alongside the game itself.
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