Workplace Technician

Rockstar hit with "silence and closed doors" Accusation from Edinburgh MPs over GTA 6 studio firings. 1AM Gamer Team 15 May 2026 16:30 PM BST Rockstar is back in the firing line, and this time the pressure is coming from inside Parliament. Three Edinburgh MPs have publicly criticised the GTA 6 developer over how the studio handled last October's mass firings, accusing Rockstar of dodging proper engagement with affected workers, their representatives, and trade unions. The wider political pressure on the studio has been building for months now, with an ongoing ministerial investigation opened by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer back in December still trying to get to the bottom of what happened. Quick refresher on the situation, because there's a lot of it. Rockstar sacked 34 employees across the UK and Canada in late October 2025, with 31 of those dismissals at Rockstar North in Edinburgh and three more at Rockstar Toronto. The IWGB Game Workers' Union says the firings were straight-up union-busting against staff who'd been using a private Discord server to organise. Rockstar's version of events is different. The studio insists the workers were dismissed for gross misconduct after sharing confidential information on the same Discord, in breach of company policy. Speaking through a statement shared by the IWGB, Chris Murray, MP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, did not mince his words. "From my first meeting with constituents impacted by Rockstar's mass dismissal, I have held concerns with both the handling and motivation behind this action," Murray said. "I made my concerns clear during Prime Minister's Questions, resulting in an ongoing ministerial investigation initiated by the Prime Minister." He went further on the human cost. "Constituents have lost their jobs, their income, with one constituent even forced to leave the country due to the removal of their visa sponsor. During a recent meeting with a constituent they explained Rockstar's justification for their dismissal has varied throughout this process. Rockstar must answer this case with transparency and full cooperation and uphold the right to appeal." Tracy Gilbert, MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, was equally pointed. She described Rockstar's behaviour throughout as "extremely disappointing", adding the studio "has refused to properly engage with staff, representatives and trade unions throughout this process. Workers asking for fairness, transparency and respect should not be met with silence and closed doors, especially when livelihoods and workplace rights are at stake." Dr Scott Arthur, MP for Edinburgh South West, joined fellow MPs on a visit to Rockstar's Edinburgh office late last year and says he raised these issues directly with senior management at the time. "When I visited Rockstar late last year alongside fellow MPs, my discussions with senior management emphasised their responsibility to treat staff in an open, fair, and transparent manner," Arthur said. "It appears that these principles are not being consistently upheld in practice. The UK Government is overseeing the largest expansion of workers' rights in a generation, and as Members of Parliament we have a duty to challenge unfair employment practices and unjust dismissals. Rockstar must therefore cooperate fully and transparently with any investigations into alleged union-busting and ensure that both dismissed and current employees are treated fairly and with respect." The Prime Minister himself previously told Parliament the situation was "a deeply concerning case" and pledged further ministerial scrutiny. What actually happened on the Discord? This bit is where things get a little messy. A detailed investigation by People Make Games earlier this year laid out the chat logs in question, suggesting the relevant discussion was about an internal Slack policy change, not leaked game features. Rockstar had told staff to cut down on off-topic chatter in Slack, and the fired workers reportedly discussed that internal memo in their organising Discord. Sharing an internal communication with non-employees is what Rockstar appears to be hanging its gross misconduct case on. Rockstar itself insists the dismissals were down to staff leaking features from upcoming and unannounced titles in the Discord, though the company has never specified which features, or which titles. As IGN previously reported, the studio has been firm on the leak narrative since day one. Where the legal fight stands. The legal side has so far tilted in Rockstar's favour, at least at the interim stage. Back in January, an employment tribunal in Glasgow refused to grant interim relief to the dismissed workers, which would have put them back on Rockstar's payroll and reinstated their work visas where needed. Judge Frances Eccles pointed to the fact that the three Canadian workers were not IWGB members as evidence union activity was unlikely to be the reason behind the firings. A full tribunal hearing where both sides will present evidence is still to come. The IWGB has now publicly accused Rockstar of "obstructing legal processes" by failing to cooperate with basic disclosure requests and refusing to provide full investigation reports. IWGB president Alex Marshall has not held back either. "They have acted as if they have impunity, showing no respect for UK employment law," Marshall said in a recent statement. "Our multiple requests for cooperation, whether proposing in-person meetings or asking for the full evidence behind the dismissals, have been met with radio silence. When Rockstar does respond, it's with a shifting narrative." Take-Two's position. Asked about the row, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has doubled down on defending Rockstar's culture, saying the publisher is "incredibly proud of our labor relations". For a company sitting on what is shaping up to be the biggest entertainment launch of all time, this is the kind of headline you really don't want hanging around in the months before release. GTA 6 is currently due on November 19, 2026 for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, with Rockstar's full marketing push expected to kick off this summer. Whether the political and legal pressure escalates further before launch, well, that depends largely on whether Rockstar starts engaging with the people knocking on its door. Right now, the silence is doing the company no favours. GTA 6 Rockstar Games Grand Theft Auto Take-Two Union Busting IWGB UK Politics Edinburgh Chris Murray Tracy Gilbert Scott Arthur Keir Starmer Gaming News

Stolen Rockstar Games analytics data leaked by extortion gang. Rockstar Games has suffered a data breach linked to a recent security incident at Anodot, with the ShinyHunters extortion gang now leaking the stolen data on its data leak site. The threat actors claim the data was taken from Snowflake environments using authentication tokens stolen during a recent Anodot security incident. They have now published what they say is Rockstar Games data containing more than 78.6 million records. "Your Snowflake instances metrics data was compromised thanks to Anodot.com," reads a listing on the ShinyHunters extortion site. Rockstar Games did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the breach from BleepingComputer. However, in a statement shared with Kotaku, the company confirmed that it suffered a data breach. "We can confirm that a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed in connection with a third-party data breach," Rockstar told Kotaku. "This incident has no impact on our organization or our players." The threat actors told BleepingComputer that the leaked data primarily consists of internal analytics used to monitor Rockstar's online services and support tickets. This data allegedly includes in-game revenue and purchase metrics, player behavior tracking, and game economy data for Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online. The datasets also appear to contain customer support analytics for the company's Zendesk support instance. In a file list shown to BleepingComputer, there were references to fraud detection systems and anti-cheat model testing. The incident is part of a larger data theft campaign linked to a recent security incident at Anodot, a data anomaly detection company that integrates with a wide range of SaaS cloud platforms. As first reported by BleepingComputer, the threat actors stole authentication tokens from the service and used them to access customer data stored in connected Snowflake, S3, and Amazon Kinesis instances. Snowflake confirmed to BleepingComputer last week that it had detected unusual activity affecting a small number of customer accounts tied to a third-party integration, and responded by locking down the affected accounts and notifying customers. The company later confirmed that the third-party integration company was Anodot. The ShinyHunters group told BleepingComputer it was behind the attacks and claimed to have stolen data from dozens of companies using the compromised tokens. Rockstar Games previously suffered a breach in 2022 when a hacker associated with the Lapsus$ extortion group leaked Grand Theft Auto 6 gameplay videos and source code. Automated pentesting proves the path exists. BAS proves whether your controls stop it. Most teams run one without the other. This whitepaper maps six validation surfaces, shows where coverage ends, and provides practitioners with three diagnostic questions for any tool evaluation.

Rockstar: developer confirms data theft after internal attack. A cyber attack has hit the development studio behind some of the world's most successful video games. The US publisher Rockstar Games has now officially confirmed that unknown persons have gained access to internal systems and stolen data. The incident has attracted a lot of attention in the gaming and tech community as the company is currently working on one of the most anticipated games in the industry - Grand Theft Auto VI. Initial information suggests that internal files and development data may have been affected. Highlights. * Rockstar confirmed a cyberattack on the company's internal systems * Attackers are said to have stolen data, possibly including development information * The attack is of particular interest due to the ongoing development of GTA VI * Rockstar is investigating the incident together with security and law enforcement agencies Cyber attack on Rockstar confirmed. Game developer Rockstar Games has officially admitted that it has been the victim of a cyber attack. According to the company, previously unknown attackers gained access to internal systems and were able to steal data. The specific information affected has not yet been fully clarified. The incident became public after indications of stolen data and possible leaks circulated on the internet. Rockstar responded with an official statement and confirmed the security incident and data theft. According to the company, it is working with external IT security experts and law enforcement agencies to investigate the attack. Such attacks on major game developers have become more frequent in recent years. Cyber criminals are increasingly trying to gain access to unpublished content, source code or internal documents. This data can then be sold, published or used for blackmail. In the case of Rockstar, the interest is particularly high as the studio is currently working on new projects, including the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI. Even minor leaks of information about this title regularly attract enormous attention within the gaming community. You might also be interested in. Possible effects on game development and the industry. The confirmed data theft raises questions about possible effects on ongoing development projects. Rockstar itself stated that it does not currently anticipate any long-term disruption to development or live services. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether internal materials or early development data will emerge publicly. Such security incidents represent a considerable risk for large game productions. Modern AAA titles are created over several years with large international development teams. During this time, enormous amounts of sensitive data are created, including * internal design documents * source code and development tools * early game versions and assets * unpublished marketing or release plans If such information is leaked, it can not only cause economic damage, but also influence the planned marketing strategy of a game. Especially in the case of blockbuster titles such as Grand Theft Auto VI, leaks are often a topic of discussion in gaming forums, social networks and the media worldwide. The incident is one in a series of similar cyberattacks on gaming and tech companies. Cyber criminals often use social engineering methods, compromised access data or security gaps in internal tools to gain access to development environments. Conclusion. The confirmed cyberattack on Rockstar Games shows once again how attractive large game developers have become to cybercriminals. It is still unclear exactly what data was stolen and whether this will result in major leaks. According to Rockstar, however, the development of current projects - including Grand Theft Auto VI - should not be permanently affected. Information on the price and release of the game is still pending, but a release is expected by industry observers in the coming years. 4. March 2024 16. April 2024 Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *