The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) has asked a judge to grant the fired GTA 6 developers interim relief at a preliminary employment tribunal hearing held in the UK this week. Rockstar Games, which also attended the hearing, has issued a response to the claims, denying a number of points made by the union.

Rockstar has insisted the employees it fired late last year were dismissed because they leaked game features for upcoming and unannounced titles in Discord, not because they were trying to unionize. 34 members of staff at Rockstar were dismissed, 31 in the UK and three in Canada, sparking protests outside the office of GTA 6 developer Rockstar North in Edinburgh, Scotland, and outside parent company Take-Two’s office in London.

The IWGB, which is representing the affected staff in the UK, has refuted Rockstar’s claim, saying that the workers "only communicated in private and legally-protected trade union channels."

On Monday, January 5, a preliminary hearing at the Glasgow Tribunals Centre in Scotland saw the IWGB represent the fired Rockstar workers and make a case for why they should be granted interim relief.

Interim relief is a legal mechanism that can provide workers with support while they wait for a full hearing. This week’s tribunal will decide whether or not the workers will receive the interim relief while awaiting a date for a full trial. If the interim relief is granted, the workers will be put back on Rockstar’s payroll and have their work visas reinstated where necessary.

The IWGB told IGN today that it is hopeful the judge will see it their way, but insisted that if the interim relief is not granted, that doesn’t mean Rockstar will not be found guilty of breaking the law if and when the case goes to trial.

“We hope this week’s tribunal will grant urgently needed relief to the workers whose lives were turned upside down by Rockstar’s brutal union-busting, leaving them and their families without incomes, without secure futures, and in some cases without even the right to remain in the country they have made their home,” the IWGB said in a statement issued to IGN.

“However, no matter the outcome of this interim hearing, we remain confident in the strength of the case we have brought against Rockstar Games. We reiterate our firm belief that Rockstar broke the law when it summarily dismissed 31 of our members, and we look forward now to the day we face them in court for a full and substantive tribunal hearing.

“Rockstar hoped to quickly and quietly wipe out a group of workers who were organising for better conditions. Instead, their dismissal of 31 union members captured the world’s attention and ignited an unprecedented uprising of global solidarity. This case is not just about the suffering of the 31 people who lost their livelihoods in the blink of an eye. This is about the arrogance of a company like Rockstar thinking that its size and profitability grant it an unlimited licence to abuse its workers, and to do so with impunity.

“Whether or not interim relief is granted this week, we will continue fighting in the courts and on the streets until we see justice, for the fired Rockstar workers and for workers everywhere fighting for a fairer future.”

A Rockstar Games spokesperson issued IGN with the following statement on this week’s hearing. In it, the company addressed many of the union’s claims, and claimed the organization lacks any evidence to justify emergency interim relief.

“Rockstar categorically denies the claim being heard in today’s hearing,” the Rockstar spokesperson said.

“We have consistently made clear that we took necessary action against a group of individuals across the UK and Canada who discussed highly confidential information, including relating to game features from upcoming and unannounced titles, in an insecure and public social channel. This was a breach of long-standing and well-understood confidentiality policies.

“This channel contained at least 25 non-Rockstar employees, including employees of competitor game developers, a video games industry journalist, as well as dozens of anonymous, unidentifiable members.

“Meanwhile, employees who posted union-supportive messages, but who did not breach confidentiality policies, were not dismissed.

“We regret that these dismissals were necessary; however, confidentiality is fundamental to everything Rockstar Games does. Global interest in our games is unparalleled. Even the smallest leak of any information relating to our products and practices can cause major commercial and creative damage — as we have seen in the past — and damage the experience of our loyal players and dedicated team. This was never about union membership. We have always taken a zero-tolerance approach to unauthorized releases of information — and we always will.”

Rockstar has indicated to IGN that it believes the IWGB’s claim of “union-busting” is baseless, and that the union has no evidence to support its statements. Rockstar has also denied having a “blacklist” of union members, stressing that at the time of the dismissals, the company did not know whether the claimants were union members, so could not have targeted them.

And, as it has said before, Rockstar employees themselves raised concerns to the company and granted representatives access to the “social” channel, not the Discord channel used for official union organizing. It maintains that this social Discord channel was not private or for employees only, and indeed contained hundreds of users, including employees of competitor game developers, a video games industry journalist, and dozens of anonymous, unidentifiable members. As IGN has also reported, Rockstar has claimed that the union channel mods didn’t know who was in the channel, and that it posed a leak risk.

What about this alleged leaked information? Rockstar believes it to be significant and related to game features around GTA 6. This includes specific game features, comments on the progress of GTA 6 development, and timelines to launch.

Rockstar believes that if the comments in question were leaked they would have been big gaming news and might even have affected Take-Two’s share price. When Rockstar officially announced that GTA 6 would be delayed by six months to November 19, 2026, the market value of Take-Two plummeted $3.75 billion in a single day.

And Rockstar has pointed to its well-established zero tolerance approach to leaks, highlighting that it dismissed a Rockstar employee in Lincoln, UK in April 2025, who it alleged disclosed confidential information about GTA 6 to a third party who published the information to social media, and dismissed an employee in the U.S. in November 2023 and another in India in November 2025 for two separate acts of information leaking.

The hearing comes after UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called the case “deeply concerning," and pledged that ministers would investigate. The layoffs were raised by Rockstar North's local MP Chris Murray in the UK's Parliament during a session of Prime Minister's Questions that took place late last year.

"The video games company Rockstar in my constituency last month fired 31 employees without providing evidence or union representation," Murray told the Prime Minister. "The [Independent Workers Union of Great Britain] IWGB alleges union busting. Having met Rockstar they failed to reassure me they are following employment law and I share concerns about union busting.

"Given this government is responsible for the biggest increase in workers rights in a generation," Murray continued, "does the Prime Minister agree all companies regardless of profit size must follow UK employment law and all workers have the right to join a union?"

"It's a deeply concerning case," Starmer replied. "Every worker has the right to join a trade union and we're determined to strengthen workers rights and ensure they don't face unfair consequences for being part of a union. Our ministers will look into the particular case that he [Murray] raises and will keep him updated."

Union busting has consequences! UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the government will look into @RockstarGames's dismissal of 31 union members. pic.twitter.com/4EEM9NvcR7

— IWGB Game Workers (@IWGB_GW) December 10, 2025

In a statement sent to IGN at the time, MP Chris Murray shared detail of his attempts to discuss the matter with Rockstar itself, including a joint meeting alongside fellow Edinburgh MPs Tracy Gilbert and Scott Arthur at Rockstar North's offices, which began with a standoff over the need to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

"The meeting began with us as MPs refused entry unless an NDA was signed, a request they eventually withdrew after being made clear this would not be signed," Murray said.

He continued: "The meeting only entrenched my concerns about the process Rockstar used to dismiss so many of their staff members. I was not assured their process paid robust attention to UK employment law, I was not convinced that this course of action was necessary, and alarmingly, I did not leave informed on exactly what these 31 people had done to warrant their immediate dismissal."

IGN recently questioned Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick on the matter, who answered by defending the company's culture and saying that Take-Two was "incredibly proud of our labor relations."

Photo by Lesley Martin/PA Images via Getty Images.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The Stranger Things 'Conformity Gate' theory has — as expected — turned out to be nonsense, leaving conspiracy theorists facing the cold, harsh reality that Season 5 really is the end of the show.

In the wake of Stranger Things Season 5’s divisive finale, the so-called ‘Conformity Gate’ theory spread like wildfire across social media, especially TikTok. It posits that the lengthy epilogue we saw in the final episode was an illusion created by villain Vecna, who remains alive and well.

Some fans spent a great deal of time and energy assembling “clues” that pointed to the shadowdrop of an “Episode 9” of Season 5 that would reveal the true ending today, January 7. Alas, that failed to materialize. It turns out that any “clues” pointing to something happening today were in fact related to Netflix making a song and dance of upcoming projects, with a flashy trailer teasing TV shows and movies to come in 2026.

The ‘What’s Next?’ tagline for this trailer is about what’s next for Netflix, not Stranger Things. And Millie Bobby Brown’s appearance in the promo as Enola Holmes for this year’s Enola Holmes 3 isn’t helping dismayed Stranger Things conspiracy theorists move on with their lives either.

"So is Chapter 9 coming or not for Stranger Things?" pic.twitter.com/kZnZ0s3DSN

— Hajedan | WolfSwap.app (@Hajedan) January 7, 2026

Mike & Eleven finally got their happy ending? pic.twitter.com/5cZmUu0dHR

— BOB (@bobussyy) January 7, 2026

Stranger Things fans rn holding onto their theory rn be like😭 pic.twitter.com/CmrK3ulFv9

— Hajedan | WolfSwap.app (@Hajedan) January 7, 2026

I swear to god if I see a single comment saying this confirms the secret finale of ST ... pic.twitter.com/arIPJ3vMeY

— Hajedan | WolfSwap.app (@Hajedan) January 7, 2026

So yes, Stranger Things is really done and dusted. And don’t expect a sequel either. The Duffer Brothers have ruled out a Stranger Things sequel that would check in on the characters years later, saying it would be “a gross cash grab.”

But all is not lost for Stranger Things fans. Netflix actually has two announced Stranger Things spinoffs in development, the first of which is Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, a new animated series due out at some point this year. This is set in the same universe between Seasons 2 and 3, and follows the original characters as they “fight new monsters and unravel a paranormal mystery terrorizing their town.” The second spinoff is an unnamed live-action series. And if you’re really desperate for more, there’s a making-of documentary due out on Netflix on January 12.

“The show ended guys. It’s over,” said one fan on the Stranger Things subreddit. “I understand you weren’t happy with the ending… I wasn’t either. But believing a secret episode is dropping just makes no sense. Not only that but the posts about it, which are nonstop and all I need at this point in the discussion of the ending and it clogs up all the space for actual discussion of the actual ending. If you want to play pretend with the ending there are several fan fiction websites to go to. I really hope today is the end of all the secret episode nonsense.”

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Netflix has provided a first look at Enola Holmes 3, the murder mystery sequel starring Millie Bobby Brown as Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister and Henry Cavill, who plays Sherlock Holmes himself.

Enola Holmes 3, due to hit Netflix this summer, sees detective Enola Holmes travel to Malta, where “personal and professional dreams collide on a case more tangled and treacherous than any she has faced before.”

“You’ll have to wait and see what brings her there — but once she’s arrived, Enola is flung into a nest of vipers,” Netflix said. “As the private detective juggles a new case and the next stages of her relationship with Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), the game is truly afoot.”

The first-look photo, below, shows Tewkesbury down on one knee presenting Enola with a flower. The question is, will she say yes?

David Harbour has dropped out of an upcoming movie starring Pedro Pascal, Eva Victor, Olivia Wilde, and Matthew Lillard, allegedly to rest after feeling “overwhelmed” by the wrapping up of Netflix show Stranger Things.

Harbour, who plays Jim Hopper in Stranger Things, has exited Behemoth!, the drama from Rogue One writer and Andor creator Tony Gilroy, Variety confirmed.

Variety said “multiple insiders familiar with the project said Harbour was overwhelmed by the series wrap of Stranger Things — a monthslong episodic rollout and global water cooler moment with intense press scrutiny — and stepped away from the project to rest.”

It is not known who will now play David Harbour’s recast character.

Stranger Things came to an end on New Year’s Eve with a 2-hour finale that saw Hopper and the rest of the characters finally defeat Vecna. It closes the door on a show that began on Netflix nearly a decade ago, with the weight of expectation of a huge online fandom that has spent years digging through every detail.

In June last year, Harbour indicated that he was ready to be hanging up the badge. "You get to a certain point where you’re like, 'How much more story is there?' You’re having to play a lot of the same beat," Harbour told Scarlett Johansson during a conversation for Interview Magazine. "And there’s a feeling where you’re like, 'I want to take a risk. I want to do something that people haven’t seen me do before.' So yeah, after 10 years, it’s like, 'Okay.'"

Two years prior, Harbour said he didn’t want to be tied to the Netflix show forever, and even suggested he’d give up TV acting altogether once Stranger Things wrapped up.

He said: "It’s a funny position I’m in, which I never thought I would be in. The first year of Stranger Things, I remember having a discussion with a publicist and her saying: ‘maybe you don’t want to be associated with the show so much.'

"I was like, ‘Why? I love this show. I love the character.’ And I do love the show. And I do love the character. But I don’t want to be just that character. I don’t want to be just that guy."

Harbour compared himself to George Clooney during his time playing Doug Ross on medical drama series ER, saying the now incredibly successful and famous film star was once just "the guy from ER.”

"I'm trying to navigate some of that, and it’s tricky because you don’t want to s**t on the people that love you for this thing that you did that you also love," Harbour added.

"But at the same time, you kind of want to leave the nest. I got more in me. I got different stuff in me, and I want you guys to see that. I don’t want people yelling ‘Hopper’ on the street every five minutes the rest of my life."

Now Stranger Things has come to an end, fans are wondering what’s next from the wider Stranger Things universe. Some have speculated that a sequel of sorts could be in the works, one that checks in on the main characters maybe a decade after the events of the Season 5 finale.

But the Duffer brothers, co-creators and showrunners of Stranger Things, have ruled a sequel out, saying making such a thing would come across as a “gross cash grab.”

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Matt Duffer explained why the Season 5 finale works as the definitive end for the story.

“Mike’s closing the basement door,” he said. “We’re closing the door on the story. That’s one reason we had the closing credits the way we did, because it was a way of saying: ‘this is finite. This is the end of their story. It’s the end of the story of Mike and Eleven and Joyce and Hopper. So, no, there’s no plan or intention to tell the story because it’s a coming-of age story. Ultimately, that’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s what the show always was. When he closes the door to the basement, he’s closing the door on his childhood and he’s moving onto adulthood.”

Matt Duffer went on to wonder out loud about the prospect of a sequel that revisits the characters years later, but ultimately ruled it out.

“I mean, I guess a sequel could be about a midlife crisis,” he said. “That just sounds really uninteresting! (Laughs.) Grandpa Hopper? I don’t know how that would read as anything but a gross cash grab to me. I wish I could talk a little bit more about the [live-action] spinoff, but I’m not allowed to yet. But Ross and I are really excited about exploring new characters and a new mythology, but still very much are interested in telling a story in the spirit of Stranger Things. It feels like with this final season, we finished saying everything we wanted to say about these characters, this story and the Upside Down.”

While details on the live-action Stranger Things spinoff are thin on the ground, we do know one thing about it: it will answer what’s inside the briefcase we see in the Season 5 finale, as well as other loose threads.

“The spinoff is going to delve into that and explain that, and you’re going to understand it,” Matt Duffer said of the briefcase rock. “But it’s a completely different mythology. So it’s not a deep exploration of the Mind Flayer or anything like that. It’s very fresh and very new, but yes, it will answer some of the loose threads that are remaining.”

The Duffer brothers are working on the spinoff as we speak, and described it as a “clean slate.”

“Completely new characters, new town, new world, new mythology,” Matt Duffer said, adding: “No common characters.”

Netflix actually has two announced Stranger Things spinoffs in development, the first of which is Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, a new animated series due out at some point this year. This is set in the same universe between Seasons 2 and 3, and follows the original characters as they “fight new monsters and unravel a paranormal mystery terrorizing their town.” The second spinoff, which the Duffer brothers are referring to above, is an unnamed live-action series. And if you’re really desperate for more, there’s a making-of documentary due out on Netflix on January 12.

Image credit: Netflix.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

There is a mysterious countdown timer on Amazon’s official website for its Fallout TV series that is set to unlock when the Season 2 finale comes out — but fans think it might also signal the shadowdrop of a Fallout 3 or New Vegas remaster.

The countdown is live now on a website designed to look like a Fallout map. On it are locations in the Fallout map style which, when accessed, lead you to behind-the-scenes information on the show. For example, The Vault 33 outer door, from which Lucy first steps foot into the wasteland, is on the south of the map. The Caswennan, the airship that serves as a soaring fortress for the Brotherhood of Steel, is to the east. And up there in the top right is the locked point of interest alongside the timer, which points to February 4.

The Stranger Things final battle was inspired by Baldur’s Gate 3, the Duffer Brothers have revealed.

Warning! Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5, Episode 8, The Rightside Up, follow:

In the finale, our heroes travel to The Abyss for a final showdown against Vecna, whose base of operations turns out to be the Mind Flayer itself. The final battle involves our heroes taking on the Mind Flayer from various positions and using various weapons, while a smaller strike team heads inside to face off against Vecna himself and rescue the kidnapped children.

It turns out Matt Duffer, co-creator and co-showrunner of Stranger Things, was playing Baldur’s Gate 3 when he and his brother, Ross Duffer, were working out how the final battle would go down, and Larian’s much-loved party-based role-playing game influenced how it would play out.

In an interview with Variety, Matt Duffer pointed to D&D and Baldur’s Gate 3 (Baldur’s Gate 3 is of course an official D&D video game, using its rules for combat and set in its universe).

“We were thinking about D&D, and I was playing Baldur’s Gate 3 at the time, and we felt it was very important that the only way for them to defeat it was for the entire party to work together,” Matt Duffer explained.

“Everyone had fully realized — either through self-acceptance or they’ve resolved all their various issues — moving into that final battle, they’re absolutely primed. They’re the ultimate team, and it’s the party working all together to defeat this thing. And they each have their own individual skills, right? And that’s where I go back to Dungeons & Dragons, and something like Baldur’s Gate. Because that’s how you take down these monsters that seem otherwise unstoppable. Lots of video game references were applied to that final battle.”

In Baldur’s Gate 3, players control not only their created character, but its now-famous companion characters in combat. The likes of Shadowheart, the half-elf Cleric, Astarion, the high elven Rogue, and Karlach, the Tiefling Barbarian, all bring different skills to the table, and finding ways to make the most of them in tough boss fights is part of the fun.

Similarly, the heroes of Stranger Things bring their own skills to bear in the final battle. Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) uses her powers to carve a path inside the Mind Flayer and battle Vecna. Meanwhile, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) suggests the others spread out, flank it on all sides, “Just chip away at its hit points.”

Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), doing her best Rambo impression, uses her gun skills to get the Mind Flayer’s attention, while the rest of the team ambush it from above. Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) uses a flame thrower, while others throw molotov cocktails and other bombs. Steve and Dustin strike from below using melee weapons. Then Will comes in with his powers to help finish the job.

Following the Duffer Brothers’ revelation, Larian boss Swen Vincke took to social media to say, “That’s pretty cool.” Larian publishing director Michael Douse added: “Damn now I really should watch Stranger Things…”

Still, some fans have taken issue with the Stranger Things final battle, wondering where all the Demogorgons were when Vecna needed them most. The Duffer Brothers have an explanation for that. We’ve also got the first details on the live-action spinoff, an explainer on the Stranger Things 'Conformity Gate' theory, which is currently doing the rounds on social media, and Sadie Sink's interpretation of Eleven's ending.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Amid the debate about Arc Raiders players who focus on the PvP aspect of the game and little else, the boss of Embark Studios has made the developer’s position clear: this is not a game about killing other players, and it doesn’t want to “foster” that type of gameplay.

Arc Raiders is a multiplayer extraction adventure in which players scavenge the remnants of a devastated world, but the main threats are Arc’s machines and, as Embark Studios puts it, “the unpredictable choices of fellow survivors.”

Arc Raiders’ player versus environment versus player gameplay has resulted in a number of viral clips showing how friendly encounters can quickly devolve into a fight to the last. Yes, you can play solo or in parties up to three, working as a team to progress through the game. However, other players are a constant threat. This has sparked a vociferous debate within the community about the etiquette that has formed in-game, with a retired pro gamer going viral for relentlessly killing casual Arc Raiders players.

Meanwhile, Embark recently confirmed that Arc Raiders does indeed feature ‘aggression-based matchmaking.’ This means that if you’re big into PvP, you’ll be matched up with players who are like-minded. Similarly, if you prefer PvE, you’ll be matchmade with players who tend to avoid conflict with other players.

But according to Patrick Söderlund, CEO of Embark Studios, the developer won’t add a PvP leaderboard or other systems that promote PvP, because that’s not what Arc Raiders is about.

In a recent interview / video playthrough of the game with Games Beat, Söderlund explained the studio’s position.

“We've had several discussions about Nemesis systems and all types of things,” he said. “I don't know where the team are on them right now. I think one of the beauties of this game is the fact that we don't have those leaderboards and it's not competitive.

“We don't want to necessarily foster that type of gameplay. The game isn't about shooting other players. You can do that if you want to, but the ethos of the game has never been to go in and shoot players. It's a part that we use to craft tension.”

Söderlund revealed that Arc Raiders spent quite a bit of time during development not having other players at all. But Embark added other players into the game, supported by subtle signaling so you know players were about, to create this important element of tension.

“The game was without other players for a long time,” Söderlund said. “And yes, there were instances where the game was fun and there were areas where it worked quite well. But also the minute you added other players and then use subtle ways of signaling — you don't know how many players are on the server, you don't know how many players have died, you don’t know how many players are around you — but we signal to you that there are other players. You hear them shooting. That's why audio is a very important part of this game. You hear them encountering Arc and other players. You see the raider flares as they go down.

“At one point — it was funny — I came back into a playtest and the raider flares were gone. I'm like, ‘Why did you remove those?’ And they're like, ‘Well, well…’ So I just said, ‘Just bring them back.’ They're such an iconic part of this game.

“And they also signal to other players that action is happening somewhere. It makes it feel populated in an important way. And you also know that there could be a downed raider somewhere. Should I go there? Should I take the risk and go there to see whether I can find something, or have they been brought back to life? There's a tension element in that that's very important.”

Söderlund went on to suggest that private game servers are “absolutely something we could consider.” Private servers are something fans have been wondering about ever since Arc Raiders came out last year. Their addition would, theoretically at least, allow those who are big into PvP to perhaps create servers where that’s the focus.

For now, though, Arc Raiders won’t shake your hand for your player-killing exploits, or give you the chance for online glory through leaderboards. The emphasis here is PvE — with a dash of PvP thrown in.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.