Rockstar's Tribunal Filings Point to a 32-Player GTA 6 Online
Documents Rockstar itself put before the Glasgow employment tribunal now contain the closest thing to an official word on GTA 6’s multiplayer that exists: a planned online service, a specific player count for it, and the phrase “online 32 player format.” Rockstar has not announced any of this. It said it in the course of arguing that staff were right to be dismissed for discussing it.
This is partly backfill. The first half of the story surfaced in January 2026, after the preliminary hearing; the explicit “32 player format” wording arrived with documents from the final hearing that opened on September 10. We are covering both together because, taken together, they change what our trackers can honestly say.
What Rockstar’s filings actually say
There are two separate documents, and the distinction matters.
The first is Rockstar’s grounds of resistance, the formal response to the union’s claims. According to GameSpot, GamesRadar+ and TechRadar, which reported it in January from documents viewed at the tribunal by People Make Games, Rockstar wrote that it was “gravely concerned” to find employees “had been sharing highly confidential and commercially sensitive information relating to the content and features of an unannounced online service.” It went on: “They discussed the specific number of online players planned for this service - a material feature of this new title - which has not yet been revealed by Rockstar.”
The second arrived this month. As reported by Game Rant, which credits Rock Paper Shotgun, a Rockstar statement to the tribunal says claimants “were candidly referencing game features – one of the most closely guarded secrets of the company. Two discussed an online 32-player format which was highly confidential at that time.” Rockstar’s Jennifer Kolbe is quoted describing it as “extraordinarily alarming” to see staff sharing details about online player numbers for a confidential project.
| Document | When it surfaced | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|
| Grounds of resistance | January 2026 | An unannounced online service exists, with a specific planned player count |
| Final-hearing statement | September 2026 | That count was discussed as a 32-player format, “highly confidential at that time” |
| Store FAQ | June 2026 | GTA 6 itself is “a single-player experience” at launch |
The messages the filings point to came from a conversation about time-off limits in which an employee mentioned a large internal test session of 32 players. We are not reproducing them; the filings’ own wording is what carries weight.
Why 32 is not a surprise
GTA Online already runs 32-slot sessions on current hardware — 30 active players, with room for spectators — and has done for years. A successor that keeps the same ceiling would be continuity, not a statement of ambition. What is new is not the number but who is saying it: until now, every GTA 6 lobby figure in circulation came from speculation, and our lobby size tracker said so.
What it does not tell you
Three caveats keep this short of an announcement.
“At that time.” Rockstar’s own wording dates the format to when the messages were sent in 2025. Session caps can change during development, and a figure used in internal testing is not necessarily a shipping specification.
No product, name or date. The filings describe an “unannounced online service” tied to “this new title.” They do not name it, and nothing in them says when it launches or what it is called — and the store FAQ still rules out online at launch.
Legal context. Rockstar is characterising this information as confidential in order to justify dismissals the union says were unlawful. That gives it every reason to describe the detail precisely, and no reason to invent it — but the purpose of the documents is the case, not the game.
What changed on VicePulse
Two rumor pages were updated alongside this article:
- GTA 6 Online lobby size moves from rumored to likely at 32 players. Rockstar’s own filings are stronger evidence than any report, but a planned figure described in a legal document is not a published specification, so it stops short of confirmed.
- GTA 6 Online release timing stays rumored. The filings are the first time Rockstar has put the existence of a successor service in writing, but they contain no date or window — which fits Bloomberg’s August report that Take-Two is not planning to discuss the new GTA Online soon.
The tribunal is listed to run until October 16. More of Rockstar’s evidence will be heard in public before then, and this page updates if any of it adds to the picture.