Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick said he is "not in the least" concerned that allegations of union-busting at Rockstar Games will cast a shadow over the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI.

Zelnick made the remarks to The Game Business on 7 August 2026, the same day Take-Two published its fiscal first-quarter 2027 earnings report. The publisher, headquartered in New York City and traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO, develops and releases games through labels including Rockstar Games, 2K, and Zynga.

The dispute at the centre of the question dates back to the dismissal of 31 employees at Rockstar North in Edinburgh. All 31 were members of the IWGB Game Workers Union, a branch of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain. Rockstar terminated them for what it called "gross misconduct" — reportedly tied to the sharing of internal company messages on a staff-and-union-only Discord server, Eurogamer reported. The union argues the firings amount to union-busting, and an employment tribunal trial is set to begin on 10 September.

The case has drawn attention well beyond the games press. Former UK prime minister Keir Starmer discussed the Rockstar dismissals, and the matter was raised in the UK Parliament, Eurogamer noted. A Rockstar Game Workers Union was established earlier in 2025 in direct response to the dismissals and, as of the previous month, reportedly counted more members than it had ever held before.

Zelnick drew a line between the development of a game and the labour relations surrounding it. He told The Game Business that the way a game is made is "different from the nature of labour relations," and pointed to Take-Two's roughly 13,000 employees and what he described as the lowest attrition rate in the industry by half, with Rockstar's turnover at half of even that figure, Eurogamer reported.

Grand Theft Auto VI is planned for release on 19 November 2026, during Take-Two's fiscal year 2027, according to the company's investor materials. The date has moved before: Take-Two's 2024 annual report listed a fall 2025 calendar target, which was later pushed to the November 2026 window.

For players, the tribunal proceedings in September will arrive roughly two months before the game's scheduled launch. The outcome could shape how the union dispute is remembered alongside one of the most anticipated releases on the calendar — but Zelnick's position is that the two tracks, production and labour relations, are separate.