GTA 6 developers Rockstar Games have had legal claims filed against them by the UK's IWGB union, with the latter alleging that Rockstar have so far declined to meet with them for negotiations following the recent firing of over 30 workers. The initial reason given by Rockstar for those firings was "gross misconduct", with the company subsequently claiming that the staff had shared confidential info in a public forum. The IWGB, meanwhile, have accused Rockstar of union busting.

Protests spearheaded by the union took place outside Rockstar North and Take-Two's UK offices last week, and you can read our reports from both here and here.

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Back in my university days, a few friends and I played Yulgang Online, also known as Scions of Fate. An early 2000s Korean MMORPG with a Chinese martial arts theme, Yulgang was one of dozens of free MMOs we dabbled in. While we never got beyond the "kill X number of things to level up" grind, it was novel to run around in a wuxia-themed world, which was a rarity in localised-into-English PC gaming back then.

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Last week, Game Developer reported that the organisers of Geoff Keighley-fronted industry awards show/advertising extravaganza The Game Awards had revealed that they've got no plans to do anything with their Future Class initiative this year. That's left the programme, founded in 2020 with the goal of highlighting up and coming talents in and around game development, facing a black hole of a future. Even worse, those featured by the initiative during the years it did run have been left feeling frustrated and unable to access the webpage which confirms they were ever part of the programme.

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New browser game Too High is about trying to form credible, humanlike sentences while absolutely whazzed on happy eggs at a party, but I think it also performs pretty well as a send-up of social anxiety at large.

Created by Christine Mi for the “Worst Nightmare” week of Itch gamejam Prototype Studio 2025, it sees you ushering the words of a greeting together with your mouse, only for them to be knocked out of formation by other, rising and falling phrases such as “am I going to die” and “what did they just say”.

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Stray Children begins with your inexplicably dog-faced orphan being invited out at night by a peculiar, grinning man. You follow him through empty streets to a secret room in an underground train station, packed with elderly computing equipment. The man tells you that this used to be your father’s workplace. He warns you not to touch one of the computers, then shambles off theatrically for an indefinite toilet break. With no other option save heading home alone, you poke the forbidden console and are promptly sucked inside it.

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