We recently reported on a series of firings at Rockstar, which resulted in accusations of union busting from the affected employees and the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain and a subsequent open letter from over 200 Rockstar North employees demanding that the fired employees be reinstated. Following the aftermath of the firing, the matter was brought up in a session of the British parliament, to which Keir Starmer responded that ministers would "look into the particular case" of alleged union busting. Rockstar, for its part, insists that the employees were fired due to "gross employee misconduct," with Rockstar claiming that confidential information was leaked in a public forum—in this case a Discord chat—although the union fighting on behalf of the employees denies these allegations.

Whether the UK parliament will actually uncover anything meaningful is unclear, although the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain's Game Workers division has filed a lawsuit against Rockstar Games alleging wrongful dismissal. In the press release about the lawsuit, the IWGB revealed that it had attempted to meet with Rockstar Games, although the game studio had declined the meeting request. This is also only the latest in a long line of layoffs that has plagued the gaming industry for the last few years, with an unofficial gaming layoffs tracker reporting that over 3,500 gaming employees have been laid off in 2025 so far.

Kerry Hopkins, EA's VP of Legal and Government affairs (and yes, apparently that's an actual position within EA) said before a UK parliament session that loot boxes in video games are surprise mechanics that aren't any different from Kinder eggs or from any other "Surprise!" factor product. AS Hopkins put it, lootboxes are also very fun and very ethical experiences in the way EA has implemented them: "We do think the way that we have implemented these kinds of mechanics - and FIFA of course is our big one, our FIFA Ultimate Team and our packs - is actually quite ethical and quite fun, quite enjoyable to people". Never mind that a government-commissioned study on the matter, "Young People and Gambling 2018 Report" claiming that 450,000 UK kids, aged between 11 and 16, bet regularly.

Hopkins explained further saying that "We do agree with the UK gambling commission, the Australian gambling commission, and many other gambling commissions that they aren't gambling, and we also disagree that there's evidence that shows it leads to gambling. Instead we think it's like many other products that people enjoy in a healthy way, and like the element of surprise." I'm sorry about the meme, but I just had to do it. But I feel tempted to circle back to the job position for VP of Legal and Government Affairs... I mean doesn't that just sound like something an evil company would have?