Rockstar’s battle with the The Impartial Staff’ Union of Nice Britain went to court docket final week, in an effort to find out whether or not greater than 30 workers accused of “gross misconduct” have been in reality unfairly dismissed. Whereas Rockstar accused the fired builders of sharing necessary confidential info, evidently at the very least a few of that info has now been made public through the court docket case–including some very early particulars on what could also be GTA 6 Online.
People Make Games has been reporting on the faceoff between Rockstar Video games and the IWGB for the reason that begin, and lately launched a video protecting the court docket proceedings to date. As a part of the preliminary listening to, Rockstar’s authorized consultant talked about a “top-secret aspect of GTA 6,” which he mentioned was so confidential he did not really feel assured talking about it out loud, as an alternative asking the choose to learn it in personal.
Regardless of the supposedly high secret nature of this proof, Individuals Make Video games was capable of make an appointment to view the paperwork, as Rockstar had not utilized for reporting restrictions to be positioned upon the proof. He has now reproduced these messages in full, displaying an obvious dialog by a fired worker who was annoyed at not having the ability to e book time without work after Rockstar began cracking down on the variety of workers being granted depart at one time.
“They talked about the massive session we did right now ‘being troublesome to do,’ however that was 32 gamers, undecided how that was troublesome,” the previous worker wrote within the Discord, after mentioning they labored in a staff of 56 individuals. “Appears like ‘you have got a number of studios of QA testers, absolutely somebody can handle to prepare a 32-player session and let individuals have their time without work’ …” added one other worker who was additionally fired within the wake of the messages.
Rockstar’s argument refers to those messages as “extremely confidential and commercially delicate info referring to the content material and options of an unannounced on-line service,” saying that the knowledge constitutes a leak as a result of it “mentioned the particular variety of on-line gamers deliberate for this new service.”
Presuming the 32-player quantity is the deliberate cap for GTA 6’s on-line play, the revelation is not precisely a bombshell, as the present iteration of GTA Online already permits 32 gamers to a server. The brand new info appears to contradict (*6*) that circulated final yr, suggesting that an upgraded version of GTA Online would enable 64 gamers at a time, with the intention of ultimately supporting 96-player servers.
A few of the different messages that have been submitted by Rockstar as grounds for the firing are additionally fascinating, not as a result of they include necessary info on GTA 6, however for what the studio is classifying as “gross misconduct.” In some instances, it is workers discussing crunch, considerations about generative AI, or modifications to sure perks supplied by Rockstar.
In a single case highlighted by Individuals Make Video games, it is a single, 15-word message: “Nothing that I’ve heard in North QA! Will preserve you up to date if that modifications ofc.” Rockstar’s grounds for dismissing this worker was that he “included details about working patterns in his staff,” which could possibly be utilized by these accustomed to the business to guess what stage of growth GTA 6 was at.
The preliminary listening to was solely the primary stage within the court docket battle between Rockstar and the union, with the choose requested to rule on whether or not Rockstar must be made to supply “interim aid” for the fired workers whereas they await the outcomes of the complete trial. The request for interim aid was rejected by the Glasgow Employment Tribunal, however the full trial continues to be to return.