Rockstar North

In November 2025, Rockstar North fired over 31 employees in Edinburgh and Dundee, all active members of the IWGB union. Over 200 Rockstar employees signed an open letter demanding reinstatement. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick claimed the firings were for 'gross misconduct' related to alleged leaks, not union activity. The IWGB filed legal claims alleging 'victimisation and collective dismissal.' UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it 'deeply concerning' and ordered ministers to investigate whether Rockstar broke employment and trade union laws.

Rockstar North has claimed over £433 million in UK Video Games Tax Relief since the scheme began, despite paying £0 in corporation tax between 2009-2019 according to TaxWatch UK. In 2024, the company claimed £73m in tax relief while simultaneously paying £132m in dividends to Take-Two Interactive in the US. TaxWatch director George Turner called it 'a drive-by assault on the British taxpayer,' noting the relief was designed for small studios with cultural content, not billion-dollar franchises like GTA.

Following the 2018 crunch controversy and Dan Houser's departure in 2020, Rockstar made documented improvements. According to Bloomberg's 2022 investigation interviewing 20+ current and recent employees: the design department was restructured, scheduling improved, temp contractors converted to full-time, and 'flexitime' policies let staff take time off for extra hours worked. Employees described it as 'a boys' club transformed into a real company' with 'morale across the company higher than it's ever been.'

In October 2018, co-founder Dan Houser described working '100-hour weeks' on Red Dead Redemption 2, later clarifying it was just the writing team for three weeks. However, Kotaku's investigation found mandatory crunch was widespread: one employee described 'a steady death march of mostly mandated 50-60 hour weeks for years,' another worked 80-hour weeks 'until I had a breakdown.' Internal emails confirmed mandatory late nights starting in 2017. One former employee said failure to crunch would result in contract termination.

UK government gender pay gap data revealed Rockstar North had a 64% gender pay gap in 2018, meaning women earned only 36p for every £1 a male employee earned. Only 8% of employees in the top quartile of pay were women. Director Andrew Semple attributed this to 'longer tenured employees who are predominantly male occupying our most senior roles' rather than discrimination, but the gap was the worst in the UK games industry.