Grand Theft Auto 6 Leaks: Everything That Happened So Far – IGN

Prior to the announcement, Rockstar was mostly talking about the continued success of Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online, both of which received next-gen updates. While it’s undoubtedly still popular, some fans got bored of continuing to hype a decades-old game, and the announcement of the next GTA game seemed long overdue.

However, since the announcement came from a press release with no additional materials, it appeared that GTA 6 was still in the early stages of development. Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive and its CEO Strauss Zelnick added that more of GTA 6 would be shared in “Rockstar’s schedule”.

This didn’t happen.

The leaks begin: “Here are 90 shots/clips of GTA 6”

GTAForums is one of the most popular online discussion forums to talk about all things Grand Theft Auto. On September 18, it became an unexpected home for leaked assets from the still-in-development Grand Theft Auto 6. The leaks quickly spread to other social media sites like Twitter and YouTube.

Various unfinished asset clips showed various elements of the game in development, including parts of the world, gunfights, and NPC AI. The clips also apparently confirmed some rumors about GTA 6 that were already circulating online, such as the existence of male and female protagonists.

The leak came from a user named “teapotuberhacker,” who also claimed to be the same person who hacked ride-hailing app Uber earlier this month.

“Here are 90 shots/clips from GTA 6,” they wrote. The hacker also shared what looks like various GTA 6 assets and code from the game.

The takedowns begin

Later that same day, leaked videos were removed across multiple platforms at the request of Take-Two Interactive. As reported by VGC, takedown requests appeared to come from people with Rockstar email addresses, almost confirming the leaks were legitimate.

The next day, both GTAForums and the GTA 6 subreddit removed threads with the leaked content. Messages on both sites stated that they were complying with Take-Two’s requests to remove all copyrighted material. The original GTAForums thread was later restored, albeit closed to new comments, and all links to stolen material were removed.

Rockstar officially confirms the hack

In a surprising step, Rockstar confirmed the correctness of the hack, which had been touted by some as a very elaborate scam.

“We recently suffered a network breach where an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development material for the next Grand Theft Auto.”

A message from Rockstar Games pic.twitter.com/T4Wztu8RW8

— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) September 19, 2022

Rockstar also reassured fans that despite the extensive leaks, the studio does not expect any disruption or “long-term development impact” on its ongoing projects. Work on the next Grand Theft Auto game would also “continue as planned”.

The FBI is involved

Given the extensive nature of the hacks and the fact that the reported victims were not one but two large companies, the FBI has become involved in an investigation into the hacks.

Uber published a blog revealing that it is working with the FBI and the US Department of Justice to investigate the recent data breaches and mentioned that their hacker is also suspected of being involved in the Rockstar hack. Uber said it believes the hacker or hackers are linked to a group called Lapsus$, which has carried out similar attacks on companies including Nvidia, Microsoft and Samsung.

“We believe this attacker (or attackers) is connected to a hacking group called Lapsus$, which has become increasingly active over the past year or so.” Uber cites similar techniques used by the hacking group at major tech companies, as reasons for their suspicion.

“There have also been reports over the weekend that the same actor has injured video game maker Rockstar Games,” Uber writes. “We are in close coordination with the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice on this matter and will continue to support their efforts.”

The fallout of GTA 6 leaks

Although we are only a few days away from the leaks, the episode has sparked a lot of discussion in the video game industry.

One such discussion is the harm of sharing such early footage of a game and how that might affect perceptions of the final product. While the next Grand Theft Auto game is still in the early stages of development, the public still lacks understanding of game development, which could have negative consequences for the final version of the game.

“My thoughts are with the team at [Rockstar Games]’ Xbox wrote Sarah Bond. “It can be disheartening when a project that you’ve worked hard to get fans excited is revealed and criticized before it’s finished.”

To my fellow developers out there who have been impacted by the latest leak, know that while it may feel overwhelming at the moment, it will pass. One day we’ll play your game and appreciate your craft, and the leaks will be relegated to a footnote on a Wikipedia page. Keep pressing. Keep making art. ♥️

— Neil Druckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) September 18, 2022

Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier written down the potential impact the leak could have on staff and how it could “limit flexibility when working from home”.

As for the early footage, there was resistance to an early verdict on work that is still ongoing.

“Anyone judging the leaked footage [GTA 6] Like an idiot clearly didn’t work in game development,” the game developer writes Cliff Bleszinski. “The amount of hours/people/dollars that go into these games [equals] insane.”

One way game developers have begun to combat and educate what a development version of a game looks like is by sharing footage from their games early in the development cycle. Developers from Insomniac, Remedy and others have shared early footage from games like Control, Spider-Man and others to illustrate what early game development looks like, even for AAA projects.

As graphics are the first thing finished in a video game and CONTROL has won several awards for graphic excellence, here is footage from the beginning of development 🙂

Full video here: https://t.co/l2g7oPhtk7
🔻 pic.twitter.com/cGnmJZXF5E

— Paul Ehrlich 🔻 (@bacon_sanwich) September 20, 2022

The caveat here is that the leaked GTA 6 footage looks pretty good considering how early in development the game is. And some developers are expanding the scope of how early a game can be revealed, like EA Motive, which has shared very early glimpses of the upcoming Dead Space remake, while heavily emphasizing that everything they’re sharing is fairly early days.

But if more players get a deeper insight and context into game development, even for AAA games, then maybe there’s at least some benefit to be had from this episode.

We won’t know the full impact of the leak on the development of Grand Theft Auto 6 or Rockstar Games for some time. While the possible consequences may not materialize for years, this will still go down as one of the biggest leaks in the history of video games and possibly the entertainment industry as a whole.

Matt TM Kim is the news editor of IGN. you can reach him @lawoftd.