Rockstar Games found itself in hot water last year when the studio fired around 30 developers who were in talks to form a union. One affected worker now says playing GTA 6 when it comes out later this year would "probably just bring back too much."
Speaking to the BBC, former Rockstar Games QA worker Jack Hoxby said he "really" doesn't know if he'll play GTA 6, a game he spent years working on. "I definitely don't think I will buy it," he says. "I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to, personally. Obviously, a lot of my friends will either presumably be gifted copies by the company, and probably other people will buy it."
"I will probably play it at some point, but it is hard to say," he adds. "I might get to it and try and sit down and play it, and it'll just be too, like, you know - I just won't be in the mood to play it. It'll probably just bring back too much. But I'm not sure. It's something I have thought about quite a lot to be honest."
The Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) last year accused Rockstar Games of illegal union busting after the company fired around 30 devs located across the UK and Canada, all of whom were either union members or involved in unionization efforts.
The GTA 6 studio claimed the firings were due to leaks of "confidential information," though the company hasn't made public what information exactly was being spread. The firings led to protests outside Rockstar Games offices, and the situation even spread to UK parliament a fair few times.
More recently, an employment tribunal ruled against Rockstar Games' request to have claims of blacklisting taken out of the upcoming trial.
The trial is set to begin in the months leading up to GTA 6's November release date on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
