Chris Bratt

Oh Peter.

And with that, the Rockstar tribunal is paused until mid-November, as we wait to hear the closing submissions from both sides. Still not entirely sure when the judge's decision itself will be made, but presumably, it won't be long after.

Another line from Jennifer Kolbe, R* head of publishing, about the ongoing union recognition discussions at the studio: “My experience, which is now over several months, is that the reps are very reasonable. We’re having good discussions. We’re meeting on a lot of points, which I think is great.”

Kolbe claimed it was unfair for the union to have said in the past that women get paid less than men at R* and that comments like this risked deterring women from wanting to work at R*. This was, I think, partly in reference to this article: www.gamedeveloper.com/production/r...

Another line from Jennifer Kolbe, R* head of publishing, about the ongoing union recognition discussions at the studio: “My experience, which is now over several months, is that the reps are very reasonable. We’re having good discussions. We’re meeting on a lot of points, which I think is great.”

New episode of The Games Press today with @dannyodwyer.bsky.social, following his decision that Noclip is about to change the way it makes documentaries. In short, he now says he's mostly done visiting games studios in the style he's been perfecting for 10 years. Big changes! We dig into it.

Rockstar has repeatedly alleged that a games journalist was a member of the union Discord, posing a significant threat to the company's security. This is something we've covered in our earlier reporting, but there's some interesting context that just got brought up in the tribunal regarding timing.

Finally, the IWGB lawyer has just pointed out that the often-cited 'GTA car-crash' article was written several months *before* he'd been given Discord access in May 2025 and cannot be used as an example of Mr Alsworth having relied on any sort of inside information from that Discord access.

Rockstar has repeatedly alleged that a games journalist was a member of the union Discord, posing a significant threat to the company's security. This is something we've covered in our earlier reporting, but there's some interesting context that just got brought up in the tribunal regarding timing.

Rockstar argues that Alsworth's inclusion in the server demonstrates the security breach this union discord represented to them. The IWGB disputes this characterization, pointing out that Alsworth was, in fact, an elected press officer for the IWGB and was invited into the server in that context.

Rockstar has repeatedly alleged that a games journalist was a member of the union Discord, posing a significant threat to the company's security. This is something we've covered in our earlier reporting, but there's some interesting context that just got brought up in the tribunal regarding timing.

The journalist in question is Scott Alsworth, who's previously written an article titled "Grand Theft car-crash" for the British communist newspaper, The Morning Star: morningstaronline.co.uk/article/gran...

“I don’t think a union would be a significant change to our business," says Rockstar Head of Publishing, Jennifer Kolbe at the tribunal today. This follows her having said “...if they want a union, they will have a union," in a recent Bloomberg article.

🤔

There's disagreement at the Rockstar tribunal as to what to call the people who leaked posts from the union discord to HR. R* Head of Publishing, J Kolbe: “We don’t have moles at Rockstar. Why don’t we call them whistleblowers, which they are… We do not call them moles because they were not moles.”

ROCKSTAR UPDATE: The employment tribunal is no longer going to finish this Friday, as initially planned. The closing submissions from both sides will instead take place next month, with a further two tribunal dates now having been scheduled in Glasgow for the 17th and 18th November.

This has primarily needed to happen because Rockstar's lawyers requested more time for their cross-examination of certain fired Rockstar employees, which the judge then granted. Two employees ended up being questioned for more than a day, for example.

Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Barcelona Mobile are both on strike this week, as workers continue to push back against the company's decision to scrap work from home. Read our report here (it's a Patreon link, but open to everyone): www.patreon.com/PeopleMakeGa...

I had hoped to be there in-person to film something on the ground, but we just couldn't make it work. So I've tried something a bit different and written about it instead (wild, I know).