Rockstar tribunal: barrister presses Dayne Oram on GTA VI mentions and HR emails

Former Rockstar Games employee Dayne Oram went back on the stand on Monday, September 14, as the employment tribunal against Rockstar continued in Glasgow. Rockstar's barrister questioned Oram about posts in a Discord used by employees involved in union activities. The studio says those posts included confidential information, among it references to unannounced features in GTA VI.

Rockstar says the employees it dismissed were fired for gross misconduct involving confidential information, not for union membership or activity. The former workers and the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) dispute this.

Thomas Cordrey, representing Rockstar, argued that the Discord mentions of "unannounced" GTA VI features would be "huge news" for investors and fans and could "directly affect" the share price of parent company Take-Two Interactive. The server had around 350 members, and he said posting the information there had "enormously widened the pool who now had access to this information". He added that Oram, as an administrator, should have deleted the messages, because the channel's own rules banned sharing "project information".

Oram disputed that the information mattered much. According to Oram, it came up in a discussion about working conditions and was not considered project information. Oram also stressed that the Discord was private and that its members had signed non-disclosure agreements.

The hearing then moved to two emails from Rob Spampinato, Rockstar's vice president of HR, setting out guidelines for using Slack channels. Oram copied both into the Discord in October 2025. Cordrey argued that posting the full emails in a server that included 10 former Rockstar employees broke the company's information-handling policies, and told Oram: "Your breach of this policy was an egregious act of gross misconduct."

Oram answered that the emails had already gone to all Rockstar staff, that Oram had not known some Discord members no longer worked at the company, and that the policy was "difficult to reconcile" with employees' right to take part in union activities.

Rockstar framed this part of its case around security. It argued that sharing internal communications outside approved systems raises the risk of phishing and social engineering, and Cordrey called genuine Spampinato emails "gold dust" for a hacker trying to trick Rockstar staff. As evidence that the threat is real, the studio pointed to its 2022 security breach, which led to early GTA VI development footage appearing online.

After the hearing, the IWGB said:

"Rockstar has accused the workers it fired of leaking highly sensitive information about GTA VI. Yet since the mass dismissal of union members last year, people following the case have been asking: where are these leaks?"

The union also said the comments Rockstar pointed to did not identify GTA VI at all. In its view, they were only publicly tied to the game once Rockstar made the connection itself during the legal proceedings.

Rockstar has made no separate statement beyond its position in court. GTAVice.net and iGrandTheftAuto based their reports on coverage from The Independent/PA Media and The Times.

The tribunal continues in Glasgow before judge Lucy Wiseman.