GTA 6: Nestor Uriarte of Rockstar: "They already pay for overtime"

GTA 6: Nestor Uriarte, a Basque union representative at Rockstar, confirms that the company is now paying overtime for the first time, despite the layoffs in October.

GTA 6 is still the talk of the town because of the countdown to its release, but within Rockstar, there’s another conversation taking place—one involving its own employees. Nestor Uriarte, a Basque employee at the developer and a union representative elected by his colleagues, has confirmed that, for the first time in the company’s history, they are being paid for overtime.

Uriarte shared this in a report by the channel People Make Games, which was later picked up by 3DJuegos. His statement, exactly as he said it, leaves little room for ambiguity:

“For the first time in the company’s history—at least as far as I know—we’re getting paid for overtime.”

Who Is Nestor Uriarte, Rockstar’s Basque Union Representative

Uriarte isn’t speaking from the outside. He’s a Rockstar employee and was elected by his own coworkers to represent them within the IWGB (Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain), the union that has been trying for months to establish a chapter within the company. His testimony includes a name, a face, and a real job title—something unusual in coverage of Rockstar, which is almost always based on anonymous sources.

Precisely because it comes from a single source—albeit one that is identified and reported by a reputable media outlet—the information about overtime is treated here as a strong rumor rather than official confirmation: neither Rockstar nor Take-Two has corroborated it on their own.

The 34 Layoffs in October Did Not Deter the Rockstar Union

The statement comes after an incident that, at the time, smacked of retaliation. In October 2025, Rockstar laid off 34 employees who, according to the workers’ own accounts, were part of a Discord group dedicated to organizing the union chapter. The interpretation at the time was clear: the company was trying to quash the movement before it gained traction.

It turned out exactly the opposite. Uriarte sums it up this way:

“The events of last October, in a way, have helped. They made people rally behind the cause.”

The result, according to their own representative, is that the union is now larger than ever within Rockstar.

Voluntary Recognition, No Official Meeting with Rockstar

Here, it’s worth tempering the hype a bit: the union has not yet sat down with Rockstar management. What it has done, according to 3DJuegos, is initiate the process to request the company’s voluntary recognition of the union chapter—the step that typically precedes any formal negotiations in the United Kingdom. Getting paid for overtime is a real and verifiable step forward, as Uriarte noted, but official recognition of the union has yet to materialize.

The backdrop doesn’t help ease tensions either: employees themselves claim that Rockstar is once again resorting to crunch as GTA VI enters its final stretch—the same practice that made the studio headline news for years due to its marathon workdays. Paying for overtime isn’t the same as avoiding it, and both can coexist within the same office.

What This Means for GTA 6 and Its Players

In the short term, none of this changes the release date for GTA 6 or affects the development of the upcoming game. But it does paint a picture of the environment in which the most anticipated title of the decade is being finalized: a union that’s growing despite layoffs, a company that’s backing down on something as basic as paying for overtime, and a workforce that, according to its representatives, remains under pressure.

Anyone who wants to follow the latest developments at Rockstar and the game’s development can find all the verified reports in more news—each with its own reliability rating—and in what’s confirmed, which lists only what Rockstar itself has officially announced.

Uriarte has not provided a date for that meeting with management. For now, the only things on the table are his word and the procedures currently underway.