Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are in November, which means we are in the height of the new game release season. We have ARC Raiders that was released on October 29th, and we have the newest installment in the Call of Duty franchise with Black Ops 7 coming to all platforms on November 14th. However, it is all quiet on the Rockstar front when it comes to the next installment in the prolific Grand Theft Auto series. Despite the initial Fall 2025 release window, which was first delayed to May 26th, 2026. However, Rockstars’ troubles started several hours before they announced yet another delay, with protests claiming that they are experiencing a union bust.
This situation started on November 5th, when Rockstar announced that they had let go of 40 employees due to leaking confidential information across Discord. The official statement given to Bloomberg from the company read, “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. This was in no way related to people’s right to join a union or engage in union activities.” That anecdote towards the end feels unnecessary to add, especially when the basis of their termination was releasing confidential information. However, it seemed to be a precursor to the events that would unfold the following day.
On November 6th at around 7 A.M. local time, 1 P.M. their time, protestors had formed outside of the Rockstar North offices in Edinburgh, Scotland, passing out pamphlets and shouting “Say sorry! Be nice! Stand up for workers’ rights!” With a speaker also saying, “We will not stop fighting until there is a union – not just at Rockstar – but at every company in the industry.” The protest was organized and supported by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), specifically the Game Workers Union division. The protest lasted roughly an hour and a half, with multiple of the former developers in attendance and answering questions to reporters after that were on the ground. They also spoke to a local MSP (Member of Scottish Parliament), Ross Greer, who was present at the protest. He would tell the reporters from GTABase.com, “Green MSPs are going to ask Parliament’s culture committee to look into this because Rockstar is one of Scotland’s biggest economic and cultural success stories. Even though it is the workers who created that success, not management. This is a company whose ****** employment practices have been known for a long time, so the Scottish Greens are more than happy to stand with the workers to get what they’re due.” They also interviewed a IWGB spokesperson, who will be linked below. Now, this stems from the allegation that Rockstar did not allow any sort of union representation during the separation procedures, nor did they give due notice to any of the former developers.
Now that was just the early morning portion of the no-good, very bad day for Rockstar. So, you could imagine it could not get much worse, especially since it sounds like they might have to deal with union-busting allegations in the Scottish Parliament. Well, about seven hours after the protests had ended and things were slightly “calming down”, Rockstar decided to share news on the much-anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI, but not exactly what everyone had hoped for.
At 3:05 P.M. local time, Rockstar Studios posted on their main social media channels that the next title in the GTA franchise would be delayed yet again, this time to November 19th, 2026. The full statement read,
“Hi everyone,
Grand Theft Auto VI will now release on Thursday, November 19, 2026. We are sorry for adding additional time to what we realize has been a long wait, but these extra months will allow us to finish the game with the level of polish you have come to expect and deserve. We want to thank you again for your patience and support. While the wait is a little longer, we are incredibly excited for players to experience the sprawling state of Leonida and a return to modern-day Vice City.
Sincerely,
Rockstar Games”
Now this garnered a lot of online attention, with most comments being negative from fans of the series and news outlets alike. A few are justifying the delay, saying that the polish is necessary and it shows a level of care from the studio that will make this the game of the century. On the flip side, some are saying that this is completely unnecessary and, especially with the recent firings, could have been prevented. This is only being done to drum up more cash for the current Grand Theft Auto Online live service. Whatever the reason Rockstar might have, the release clock is now back above the one-year mark with only updates and content releases in their live service to tide us over in that world.
If you would like to support the Union and the Developers terminated, please visit: https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/support-rockstar-workers-fighting-unfair-dismissals
The interview with Ross Green can be seen here: https://x.com/GTABase/status/1986434326582427665.
The interview with the developers can be seen here: https://x.com/GTABase/status/1986438509368873303.
The interview with the IWGB Spokesperson can be seen here: https://x.com/GTABase/status/1986463833251062141
