Discord messages Rockstar Games management reviewed before firing union members have reportedly been revealed.
A new investigation from People Make Games (PMG) has shed light on the controversial firing of 34 employees at Rockstar Games, terminations the studio management described as “gross misconduct,” but which the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) referred to as a clear case of union busting. Screenshots shared with PMG by an active Rockstar Games employee appear to show what the company considered key evidence.
PMG previously reported from Edinburgh, where recently terminated employees protested outside Rockstar North. This week, demonstrations continued outside the London and Paris offices of Take-Two, Rockstar’s parent company. Despite public pressure, Rockstar Games has maintained that the dismissed workers leaked “confidential information on a public forum.” However, according to the union, the “public forum” is an invite-only Discord server used for organizing, something explicitly protected under UK trade union law.
The Discord server in question had existed since 2022 and included over 300 verified Rockstar Games employees, as well as IWGB organizers. New joiners interested in unionization were invited into a general channel, while paying members participated in more focused organizational work behind additional access gates. According to PMG’s source, clear rules existed within the server, and no confidential game information was ever shared. Instead, workers discussed pay, bonuses, working conditions, and industry-wide layoffs, topics legally protected under the Equality Act 2010.
In early October, Rockstar Games abruptly removed most non-work Slack channels, citing productivity concerns. Many employees viewed this “Slack purge” as an attack on workplace morale and on subtle forms of solidarity, including the use of emoji statuses that had become symbolic within the union. Because Rockstar’s internal emails can only be viewed on-site, some union members re-posted excerpts of leadership’s Slack-policy announcements into the Discord so colleagues could stay informed. According to PMG’s source, this act triggered a complaint from at least one employee, prompting management to obtain and review the Discord logs.
Union Discord Messages Viewed By Rockstar Games
Of the Discord messages seen below, the first and sixth ones shared excerpts of Rockstar Games’ Slack-policy announcement email.
- “I would really like to see the evidence for them being too much of a productivity hit. I can’t imagine it being worth the absolute dumpster fire this will be for morale.”
- “Did they show any examples of misbehaving? Or is this all finger pointing without anything specific?”
- “Fu*king bullsh*t reasons as per, backed by no evidence I would imagine.”
- “The productivity point is a load of sh*t, and everybody knows it.”
- “Plus, sending them out after most of the UK folks have left for the day, sick :D”
- “‘This also helps us maintain clearer boundaries between work and personal life’ :/”
- “Lmaoooo well then let me work my contracted hours.”
For the uninitiated, earlier this month, an anonymous Rockstar Games employee took to the GTAForums to reveal what they describe as a “devastating wave of illegal firings” targeting union workers across the company’s UK and Canada-based studios. Read about it here.
