On 30 October 2025, Rockstar Games dismissed three developers at its Toronto-based studio (physically located in Oakville, Ontario) on the same day that 31 colleagues were terminated at the publisher's UK operations. The combined 34-person purge has since become one of the most high-profile labour disputes in modern video-game industry history, with the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) characterising the firings as "one of the most blatant and ruthless acts of union busting in the history of the games industry" (Ore, 2025). This report focuses specifically on the three Canadian dismissals, their context within the broader 34-worker action, and the cross-jurisdictional implications for the run-up to Grand Theft Auto VI.
Rockstar Toronto, established in 1981 as Alternative Reality Technologies and later acquired by Take-Two Interactive, operates from offices in Oakville, Ontario, and has contributed to multiple Rockstar releases, including the PC port of Grand Theft Auto V and ongoing support work expected to extend to GTA VI. The studio operates under Ontario labour law, which differs materially from the UK statutory framework that governs the 31 dismissed Edinburgh-based staff at Rockstar North.
The dismissals occurred against the backdrop of an industry-wide unionisation push. The IWGB Game Workers branch had, since mid-2025, hosted a private Discord server where Rockstar staff and other game workers discussed working conditions, union membership, and organising tactics. According to the IWGB and the dismissed Canadian worker who spoke anonymously to CBC News, the single common thread among all 34 terminated employees was their membership in that Discord server (Ore, 2025).
On the morning of 30 October 2025, three Rockstar Toronto employees were individually escorted into rooms with HR representatives and informed they were being terminated for breaching the non-disclosure agreement that every Rockstar employee signs as a condition of employment. The anonymous Toronto worker described the experience to CBC News: "I had no idea what was going on. I was shell-shocked... They ended up just giving us our essentials and... we were immediately escorted out of the building by security" (Ore, 2025).
The three dismissed workers spanned different departments and seniority levels, mirroring the cross-disciplinary spread observed among the 31 UK terminations. CBC News has declined to name the Canadian developers, citing credible fears of industry-wide blacklisting (Ore, 2025). Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar's parent company, did not respond to CBC News requests for comment on the Canadian firings specifically.
Rockstar publicly framed the entire 34-worker action — Canadian and UK alike — as a response to "gross misconduct" involving the leaking of confidential information. In a December 2025 statement to IGN, a company representative said: "Rockstar Games took action against a small group of individuals, across the UK and internationally, who distributed and discussed confidential information (including specific game features from upcoming and unannounced titles) in a public forum, in breach of company policy and their legal obligations" (Bošnjak, 2025). The firm explicitly rejected the union-busting narrative, calling such claims "entirely false and misleading" (Bošnjak, 2025).
Rockstar further alleged that the IWGB Discord server included a game journalist and a rival developer's employee among its membership, and emphasised that other Discord members who spoke favourably about unionisation but were not found to have violated policy remained employed (Bošnjak, 2025).
Nasr Ahmed, staff organiser at Communications Workers of America (CWA) Canada, participated in a December 2025 solidarity picket outside Rockstar Toronto's Oakville offices. He directly contested Rockstar's leaking allegations as applied to the Canadian three: "They have not provided any proof for those claims, either for the Canadian workers or the U.K. workers" (Ore, 2025). Ahmed argued that "discussing your working conditions is not against the law, as far as I know, in either Canada or the U.K., which is what exactly these workers were doing" (Ore, 2025). He warned of a "chilling effect" that would discourage Canadian games-industry workers — already concentrated in a handful of major studios — from organising.
Aurelia Augusta of the CWA's United Videogame Workers union added that the Canadian context is particularly acute: "People are scared, especially in Canada where... a handful of major studios have control of a huge amount of the game development jobs pipeline" (Ore, 2025).
Ontario's Minister of Labour, David Piccini, issued a statement reminding workers of their rights: "I want all workers in Ontario to know they have the right to raise concerns about their workplace, and Ontario's labour laws exist to ensure those concerns are addressed through fair and established processes" (Ore, 2025). The Canadian dismissals have so far attracted less direct ministerial intervention than the UK cases, where Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described the situation as "deeply concerning" and three Scottish Labour MPs — Chris Murray, Dr Scott Arthur, and Tracy Gilbert — publicly accused Rockstar of obstructing the investigation (Nelon, 2026).
By May 2026, the IWGB alleged that Rockstar had failed to meet basic disclosure requests, refused to provide full evidence and investigation reports, and denied workers their right to appeal — characterised by IWGB President Alex Marshall as "corporate legal stonewalling" (Nelon, 2026). One affected UK constituent reportedly lost their visa sponsor and was forced to leave the country.
The three Toronto dismissals are numerically small relative to the 31 UK terminations, but they are strategically pivotal. They internationalise the dispute, place the matter under two distinct labour-law regimes simultaneously, and demonstrate that Rockstar's action was coordinated across jurisdictions rather than a localised UK personnel decision. For the Canadian games sector — historically resistant to unionisation but recently witnessing organising drives at Ubisoft Halifax and id Software — the Toronto firings represent a cautionary signal at precisely the moment momentum was building.
The anonymous Toronto worker summarised the position of the dismissed three: "We poured our heart and soul into our work... All we wanted to do is make the best game possible. We're all passionate folk" (Ore, 2025).
Bošnjak, D. (2025) Rockstar makes more detailed allegations about GTA 6 developer firings. Game Rant, 14 December. Available at: https://gamerant.com/rockstar-gta-6-developer-firings-new-allegations-secrets-leak-response/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Nelon, J. (2026) Rockstar accused of blocking investigation into alleged union busting after GTA 6 studio firings. Digital Citizen, 13 May. Available at: https://www.digitalcitizen.life/rockstar-accused-of-blocking-investigation-into-alleged-union-busting-after-gta-6-studio-firings/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Ore, J. (2025) Canadian among fired workers from Grand Theft Auto studio says they just want their jobs back. Radio Canada International / CBC News, 23 December. Available at: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/rci/en/news/2215709/canadian-among-fired-workers-from-grand-theft-auto-studio-says-they-just-want-their-jobs-back (Accessed: 14 May 2026).