Boiler malfunction briefly seals off Rockstar North studio

Kotaku reports first responders, including six fire engines, descended on Rockstar Games’ Edinburgh office, Rockstar North, early on Monday after an apparent explosion caused structural damage.

Emergency crews told The Herald they were alerted at 5:02 a.m. on Monday, 19 January, and that Operations Control mobilized three fire appliances and specialist resources; crews left the scene at 9:21 a.m. The incident left no one injured. A Rockstar Games spokesperson said the explosion resulted from a malfunction in one of the heating boilers and that the studio remains open and fully operational as it prepares for the November launch of GTA 6.

The Edinburgh office has recently been at the center of an ongoing labor dispute with 31 fired developers who were trying to unionize. The workers say they were targeted for organizing, while Rockstar says the departures were for confidentiality violations, including alleged leaks of development and gameplay details in a union Discord channel with outside observers. A judge denied the fired developers immediate relief in the form of back pay, and a full ruling on the complaint's overall merits is still pending.

Key Topics

Tech, Rockstar Games, Rockstar North, Edinburgh, Boiler Malfunction, Labor Dispute