We’d love to say that things are going smoothly ahead of the launch of GTA 6, but another scandal has just hit Rockstar Games: the UK government has accused the studio of underpaying its staff. Not long ago, the government put out a list of hundreds of companies around the country that have failed to pay their staff. Unfortunately, Rockstar Games was among them, and the sadder thing is that it seems the studio didn’t pay those working behind the long-anticipated GTA 6.
The UK Government Has Accused Rockstar Games of Underpaying Its GTA 6 Staff
The information went live on March 19, 2026, when His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, alongside the Department of Business and Trade, and the Fair Work Agency released a list exposing hundreds of businesses that had failed to pay their workers. Among them, it is Rockstar Games, with the following information:
Rockstar Games UK Limited, Edinburgh, EH8, failed to pay £1,396.73 to 5 workers.
According to the UK government, the studio failed to pay £1,396.73 to five employees, which isn’t much when divided among those workers, coming to £280 per person. Still, the government has asked Rockstar Games to pay them in full.
Unfortunately, this is yet another scandal ahead of GTA 6. If you didn’t know, the studio was under fire last year over an alleged union-busting incident in which several employees lost their jobs. While these employees filed for interim relief, it seems they didn’t get it, as the jury didn’t find sufficient evidence of union-busting. Rockstar Games claimed it fired the employees for leaking information about GTA 6.
With the information out, people have started reacting to the news, and due to the amount that Rockstar Games failed to pay, some think it was a mistake rather than an attempt to underpay its staff.
“Sounds like an accounting error instead of anything malicious,” said one Reddit user.
“This is such a negligible amount to such a small number of people that this could very easily just be an admin error where some overtime was not paid. Obviously, it should be resolved, but this is hardly a “public shaming,” said another Redditor.
Ultimately, these are all speculations, and we’ve yet to hear from the studio itself. However, it doesn’t seem like it deliberately underpaid its staff, especially if we compare it with the amounts of other companies in that document. It certainly looks like a tiny error, and one that the company can amend quickly.
