Over the weekend, a hacker illegally obtained and leaked unreleased footage from “Grand Theft Auto VI,” the upcoming installment in Rockstar Games’ hit franchise, the studio acknowledged Monday.
A user on the GTA Forums posted a 3-gigabyte file — which included 90 videos with “GTA VI” footage, PC Gamer reported. According to the report, the hacker said they may “leak more data soon,” including “GTA V” and “GTA VI” source code, assets and test builds.
Grand Theft Auto 6 Leak Confirmed
Rockstar on Monday confirmed the “GTA 6” leak, saying it was “extremely disappointed” about the incident.
“We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and download confidential information from our systems, including early development footage from the next ‘Grand Theft Auto,’” the company said in a tweet.
“We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next games shared with you all in this way,” Rockstar’s statement continued. “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.”
The unreleased footage apparently confirmed that Vice City will be a featured location in “GTA VI” and that the game will feature a female protagonist.
Rockstar said it does not expect any disruption to its live game services or any “long-term effect” on the development of its ongoing projects. First released in 1997, the open-world, action-adventure “Grand Theft Auto” game has been far and away the top-selling title for Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar’s parent company.
The leak of “GTA 6” video footage and the hacker’s alleged access to the game’s source code “is, regrettably, not good news,” MoffettNathanson research analyst Clay Griffin wrote in a note Monday to clients.
“The footage alone wouldn’t do much to harm the commercial prospects of the game, in our view, although it’s completely unfair to Rockstar,” Griffin wrote. “If anything, it probably ramps up demand and anticipation.” However, what is “highly concerning” is the theft of the source code and game builds, which could signal “a gaping security risk for the finished product,” he added.
“From what we’ve read about the situation, it may force a large amount of rework and in the process slow production down considerably,” the MoffettNathanson analyst wrote. “In any case, the security around the game and its development has been compromised. That alone should put speed bumps on the development timeline.”
“Grand Theft Auto VI” most likely will be released sometime in Take-Two’s fiscal year that ends March 2025, according to Griffin, as the market has expected the title to debut in FY’24 or FY’25.
The leak was initially published to fan forum GTAForums by a user with the handle “teapotuberhacker,” who claimed to have obtained some of the video footage from an internal Slack channel for Rockstar employees.
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