Rockstar Games has just suffered a major Grand Theft Auto 6 leak.
Described as “one of the biggest leaks in video game history” and a total nightmare for the hit franchise’s publisher by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, 90 videos featuring GTA 6 test build footage were uploaded by an individual SIMPLY known as “teapotuberhacker.”
It’s worth noting the hacker who obtained said test build footage directly from a Rockstar employee Slack channel also claims responsibility for the recent infiltration of Uber Technologies Inc. In a follow-up message regarding the upcoming GTA 6, “teapotuberhacker” indicated, “I am looking to negotiate a deal,” before alluding to the possibility of revealing even more internal information about the ongoing project.
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What has Rockstar Games themselves said about the matter?
Given a digital pantsing of this magnitude is pretty damn hard to sweep under the rug – especially when it perfectly aligns with all our earlier suspicions, i.e. the franchise’s first female protagonist named Lucia alongside a playable male character named Jason, returning to Vice City (a fictional counterpart to Miami) – the New York City-based publisher issued the following statement via Twitter:
We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto. At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to our live game services nor any long-term effect on the development of our ongoing projects.
We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way. Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned and we remain as committed as ever to delivering an experience to you, our players, that truly exceeds your expectations. We will update everyone again soon, and, of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it’s ready. We want to thank everyone for their ongoing support through this situation.
– The Rockstar Games Team
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Despite this, Grand Theft Auto 6 is still currently projected to generate an estimated $3.5 billion at launch with annual revenue of approximately $2 billion thereafter, according to BofA Global Research.
“The leaked footage simply confirms existing market rumours on the game’s development that have been circulating for years,” said Benchmark analyst Mike Hickey.
“We are incrementally more confident the game can release in FY25 and provide a significant catalyst for revenue and profit growth.”
Check out every minute of early gameplay footage from the Grand Theft Auto 6 leak above (or the abridged version below for those of you short on time).
