An honest opinion or defamation? A solicitor outlines the legal nuance

Chris Kerr,Senior Editor, News,GameDeveloper.com

September 11, 2026

4 Min ReadBackground image via Discord / Logo via Rockstar

Rockstar has accused some of its former workers of defaming the company in a Discord server by using several terms such as "cowardly corporate fucks," "bastards," and "abusive" to describe studio managers.

According to Rockstar, some people directly lambasted the studio by suggesting it was "sliding downhill into corporate hell." A series of HR announcements were also purportedly mocked as being "like a shit advent calendar."

I've seen a fair bit of social media chatter about the defamation allegation, specifically questioning whether using floral language to describe your manager or a sequence of HR beats would constitute defamation in the UK. But first, a rapid refresher on how we got here.

The allegations were included in legal filing sent to Game Developer by Take-Two Interactive, which was dropped into our inbox on the same day the union busting dispute between the Grand Theft Auto VI developer and 34 fired employees commenced at an employment tribunal in Glasgow, UK. The dismissed employees claim they were ousted for engaging in union activity. Rockstar said it jettisoned them for misconduct—including the leaking of confidential information on Discord.

Here's what Rockstar had to say about some of the comments made by its now-former employees in a Discord channel dubbed 'Room C,' which the company said housed 350 people—including some non-employees and a journalist—many of whom allegedly used online aliases. Be advised, there's some strong language in the excerpt below.

On the latter issue of respect, non-disparagement, trust and confidence, one of the first things the Respondent’s witnesses describe identifying when they gained access to the Discord, was that the hundreds of people in Room C were audience to the Claimants openly and vituperatively disparaging and defaming their employer and its parent company, Take-Two. A named manager was called a ‘cunt’, the company hierarchy were called ‘cowardly corporate fucks’, managers were called ‘arseholes’, ‘narcissistic’,‘abusive’ and ‘bastards’. A sequence of HR announcements were mocked as ‘like a shit advent calendar’ and management was told to ‘get fucked’. The company was slated as ‘structurally cracking’ ‘sliding downhill into corporate hell’ and having ‘overspent its budget’ with investors said to be ‘losing confidence’. At any moment a screenshot or forwarding of any one of these messages by any one of the 350 users, or the publishing of an article about them by the journalist, could have generated enormously damaging publicity and hit market confidence and the Take-Two share price.

The denigration of the Respondent by its own identifiable employees was sustained and damaging. Numerous Claimants fomented an atmosphere of “them and us”, disparaging senior management, criticizing HR, encouraging employees to take their next bonus and then quit and even circulating a link to job vacancies outside the company. Management communiques were [RDB/1654-2494] mocked as ‘corporate bs’, a ‘waste of keystrokes’ and ‘Fucking bullshit’. Several Claimants encouraged colleagues to use forms of communication which could not be monitored by HR and advised on the technological means of so doing. The damage to morale and impact on the work environment of the Claimants’ posts were one of the primary reasons that three employees felt compelled to come forward to blow the whistle.

So, what exactly is defamation under UK law? As you might imagine, there's nuance to unpack, so we asked Abby Mercer, a solicitor at Kuits—a Manchester practice with expertise in corporate disputes including reputation management—to provide a legal explainer (without directly commenting on the case) that might be helpful to anyone following the tribunal.

"There are two types of defamation—verbal statements and those in writing. Technically, it doesn't matter if the alleged defamatory statement is in writing or verbal. If you can prove that the statement was untrue and causes serious harm to reputation, then you can bring the claim," said Mercer.

"So, if untrue statements were made in an online meeting room, it could result in a claim being made. Very often, people don't realise when making quick comments in an online forum, each statement is potentially defamatory with a claimant being able to bring a claim for each individual statement. In addition, there may be claims against the host of the platform."

Mercer explains it's possible to defeat a defamation claim with the "honest opinion" defence. In short, that means if the statement made was clearly an opinion—specifically, an opinion an honest person might hold based on any fact that existed at the time—the defendant may be able to defeat the claim.

"In terms of commercial defamation though, a statement is not defamatory to the reputation of a company unless it caused or is likely to cause serious financial loss," Mercer continues.

"As readers would likely be aware, the focus in this claim is also understandably on the release of confidential information. We are seeing an ever-increasing number of claims against employees releasing confidential information both in the public domain but also sending confidential information to personal email accounts. In these circumstances, businesses will act decisively and fast, and employees will face the costs of defending an injunction should they share information which should remain confidential."

We'll leave you to form your own opinions using all of the above.

Rockstar GamesTake-TwoLabor & UnionizationTop Stories

About the Author

Chris Kerr

Senior Editor, News, GameDeveloper.com

Game Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, and PocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton.

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