Workers at GTA 6 developer Rockstar will soon get to vote on recognizing a union.
The union, IWGB Union at Rockstar, is for Rockstar’s UK-based developers. Rockstar North, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, is one of Rockstar’s biggest outfits in the UK, and the lead developer on GTA 6.
The negotiating process between the union and Rockstar management took months, and the union, if recognized, would give workers a stronger seat at the table for key issues like pay and bonuses, overtime, generative AI policies, work-from-home setups, and situations involving layoffs.
The IWGB Rockstar Game Workers Union would become the largest in the UK video game sector, if it’s voted in.
The voting period–November 12-26–overlaps with the release of GTA 6 on November 19.
At the same time, an employment tribunal over claims that Rockstar fired developers for trying to form a union is coming to a close, with final arguments set for November 17 and November 18. More than 30 IWGB members were let go from Rockstar in the UK in October 2025, with the union saying Rockstar fired them for trying to form a union. Rockstar, for its part, said the staffers were dismissed for leaking key details about Rockstar’s upcoming games.
IWGB said the Rockstar case for unionization is an especially important one in the UK because the profile of Rockstar North–the developer of what is expected to be the biggest game of all time–could lead to a more widespread unionization push across gaming.
Rockstar publishing boss Jennifer Kolbe told Bloomberg recently, “We go where the team goes. So if they want a union, they will have a union.”
Rockstar Game Workers Union Committee member Shanti Easton-Steel said the studio has “the chance to making gaming history” with the upcoming unionization vote and the tribunal decision.
“As all our hard work, skill and creativity are experienced by GTA 6 players for the first time, our voices will now be heard for the first time too,” Easton-Steel said. “When management choices are kept hidden, we can’t properly address issues like the gender pay gap, the uneven and ever-changing policies on overtime pay, or the concerns many co-workers hold around job security post-release.”
IWGB Union president Alex Marshall added, “For anyone who cares about the games industry or the people who keep it running, this vote is just as historic as the game release. But for workers at Rockstar, it is so much more personal: it is fundamentally a choice about whether you get to have a say in how your day-to-day life is organized.”
While the movie industry in Hollywood and beyond are largely unionized, the same is not true for video games. Unions are far more rare, but that’s changing somewhat, as more and more developers in the US and worldwide are unionizing. For example, more than 1,900 workers at Blizzard recently reached a unionization contract with Microsoft, with workers winning things like guaranteed raises, guardrails on AI, and more.
