rockstar north employment tribunal final hearing starts this week

Timing on this is something else. We're a couple months out from GTA 6 and Rockstar is heading into the final hearing for the tribunal with the 31 Rockstar North employees they let go. Eurogamer has a piece up about it, and their headline is basically a play on Grand Theft Employment Rights, which is pretty on the nose.

This has been dragging on for a while now. The final hearing starts this week, so we should finally get some actual details on what both sides are arguing. I remember the initial reports about the firings, but it's been quiet since. Now it's all happening right after the Netflix extended look and right before launch. Weird timing, but I guess tribunals don't care about marketing cycles.

What gets me is the scale. 31 people from Rockstar North specifically. That's not a small number for one studio. I'm not going to pretend I know the ins and outs of UK employment law, but the fact it's reached a final hearing means it didn't get settled early. Rockstar probably wanted this to go away quietly and it hasn't.

I don't think this touches the November 19 date or anything like that. The game is done enough to show on Netflix and pre-orders are live. But it's still a weird look for a studio about to drop the biggest game of the decade. You'd think they'd want all the headlines to be about Vice City, not a tribunal.

Do you think this gets settled before launch or does it actually play out in public?

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Source: Eurogamer · Curated content.