“We go where the team goes. So if they want a union, they will have a union.” That is Jennifer Kolbe, Rockstar’s head of publishing, speaking to Bloomberg, and it lands in the same month Grand Theft Auto VI is due on Nov. 19.
The vote that follows her comment runs from Nov. 12 to Nov. 26. If staff back recognition of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, the Rockstar Game Workers Union would cover more than 1,600 people, nearly every U.K. role below director level. Organizers say it would be the biggest recognised union in the U.K. games sector. The nearest comparison is the roughly 1,900-member union at Microsoft-owned Blizzard, which the Communication Workers of America says has just won its first contract. Rockstar as a whole employs over 4,700 people in 12 locations, so the union would not speak for everyone, and the large studios in the United States and India fall outside it.
The road there has been rough. Rockstar fired 31 workers last October for allegedly leaking company secrets. The union says they were dismissed unlawfully and accuses the company of union busting. Rockstar says the dismissals followed potential security breaches. An employment tribunal in Scotland is still hearing the case, with closing submissions set for Nov. 17 and 18, right in the middle of the vote.
Shanti Easton-Steel, a production co-ordinator at Rockstar North and a union committee member, put the stakes in personal terms. Hidden management decisions, she said, make it hard to tackle the gender pay gap, shifting overtime policies and worries about job security after release. “This is our moment to secure a window onto the decisions that shape our lives, and a seat at the table to improve them.”
What comes after the biggest launch
Grand Theft Auto VI carries an estimated $2 billion budget. One projection has the game costing the U.S. economy about $1 billion a day in lost workplace productivity. Grand Theft Auto V, out since 2013, has sold over 220 million copies and ranks second among the best-selling video games ever. Whatever Rockstar makes next will live in that shadow.
Fans keep asking for Max Payne and Bully. Both have audiences. But Max Payne 3 earned only $4 million in revenue in its first year, and Take-Two Interactive and some Rockstar executives came to see it as a commercial failure, even though it eventually reached break-even through digital storefronts like Steam. Players, meanwhile, are tired of sequels and reboots. Rockstar’s last original franchise was Table Tennis in 2006, and L.A. Noire was developed by Team Bondi, with Rockstar only publishing it.
Rumor fills the gap. A medieval project, dubbed Project Medieval, was reportedly an action RPG or open-world melee game. In 2025 it emerged that it never got past the conceptual phase. Rockstar has confirmed no new IP.
Rockstar’s tie-ins are already stacking up. Travis Scott, Rockstar and Nike are reported to be releasing three Air Force 1 Low colorways on Nov. 19 at $130 a pair: Black/Fire Pink, White/Fire Pink and Multicolor. None of the three has officially announced it.
Sources
- Rockstar Needs to Forget Red Dead and GTA for its Next Game
- Rockstar Games
- Travis Scott, Rockstar Games, and Nike Team Up for Three Air Force 1 Colorways
- 'We Have the Chance to Make Gaming History Not Once but Twice' — Rockstar Staff Set for 'Historic' Union Vote at the Same Time GTA 6 Comes Out
- 'GTA 6' Cactus Jack x Rockstar x Nike Air Force 1s Releasing
- Rockstar Games’ union could top 1,600 workers
Photo: Red Apple Learning (CC BY-SA 4.0)
