Rockstar Games has said nothing publicly about the multiplayer component of Grand Theft Auto VI — not a name, not a date, not a business model. On Thursday, the most substantive description of it in existence entered the public record anyway, in a witness statement the company filed to defend itself against 31 people it fired.
The final hearing in Garland & Others vs Rockstar opened on September 10 at Glasgow Tribunal Centre and runs until October 16, per the IWGB, the union bringing the case. That is 67 days before launch, and the hearing concludes 34 days before it. Rockstar dismissed the workers in October 2025; it says they shared confidential information about unannounced games in a private Discord channel run by the union. The IWGB says the dismissals were retaliation for organising, carried out with no disciplinary process and no right of appeal, and that Rockstar blacklisted the workers. Rockstar told PC Gamer its position "has been clear and consistent throughout": the dismissals were for gross misconduct, "not because of alleged trade union membership or activity."
What the filing actually says
To argue the leaks were serious, Rockstar had to say what was leaked. Its statement describes workers referencing "an online 32 player format" for a confidential project, and characterises game features as among "the most closely guarded secrets of the company" (Dexerto). Head of Publishing Jennifer Kolbe is described as finding the discussion of online player numbers "extraordinarily alarming."
The same filing sets out the apparatus built to prevent exactly this: visitor NDAs, escorted contractors, a photography ban, personal phones and laptops blocked from company systems, external storage banned, heavily restricted remote work, and privacy film installed on office windows after drones were allegedly used to photograph interiors. Rockstar's own analogy, per the filing: "Guarding the secrets of the unique gameplay and design are akin to Apple protecting the iPhone or Coke protecting its formula."
That comparison is worth taking at face value rather than as rhetoric. Apple and Coca-Cola are not companies that guard a product; they guard a margin. The iPhone analogy tells you Rockstar considers the online design a durable commercial asset, not a feature list.
Why a lobby size is a financial disclosure
GTA Online is the reason Take-Two's recurrent consumer spending line looks the way it does, and the successor is the single largest unpriced variable in the November launch. Bloomberg's Jason Schreier said in August that Rockstar is "not planning to talk anytime soon about what the new GTA Online will look like and what that recurring spend will look like" (Dexerto). Nothing has changed that.
Player count is not a trivia item in that context. It sets the ceiling on session-based content design, which sets the shape of what can be sold inside it. Thirty-two players is a different product from GTA Online's thirty on current-gen consoles in only one sense — the number — but the fact that Rockstar treats the figure as iPhone-grade secrecy suggests the company knows the online architecture is where the next decade of revenue is decided. As we argued in July, Rockstar has already consolidated the entire sanctioned GTA multiplayer market into a platform it owns. Keeping the successor's design dark until launch is consistent with that: you do not pre-announce terms in a market with no second venue.
There is an uncomfortable symmetry here. The people who could describe GTA 6 Online most accurately are the ones Rockstar removed for describing it to each other, and the only public description exists because Rockstar needed to prove the description mattered.
Labeled, because it has to be
●rumor — That GTA 6 Online will support 32 players at launch. The filing says a 32-player format was discussed internally and was confidential at the time. It does not say the figure is final, and Rockstar has confirmed no multiplayer detail of any kind. Treat every "32-player confirmed" headline as a misreading of a court document.
●reported — That a former Rockstar developer expects GTA 6 Online to let roleplay creators earn real money from custom content (Dexerto). An informed outside prediction, not a plan.
One small correction to the record while we're here: several outlets have placed this tribunal in Edinburgh. Rockstar North is in Edinburgh; the hearing is in Glasgow.
The calendar
A ruling is not guaranteed to land before November 19, but the evidence is being heard in the five weeks when GTA 6's marketing peaks — and every day of it is public. The fired workers have asked supporters not to boycott the game, directing them to a legal fund instead. Separately, the IWGB is negotiating for formal recognition at Rockstar, which would make it the largest recognised unionised studio in the UK.
Nothing a buyer needs has moved. Standard $79.99, Ultimate $99.99, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, pre-load November 12, launch November 19 — the buyer's guide is current, and what Rockstar has actually confirmed still contains no online mode. If the tribunal produces a finding before launch, The Causeway will carry it the day it lands.