Grand Theft Auto 6 leaks are a part of its story

With simply over 24 hours left earlier than Rockstar Video games was set to debut its first Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer, a grainy video began circulating on-line: The GTA 6 trailer, however marked with a large bitcoin watermark. About half-hour later Rockstar did the company equal of claiming “Fuck it,” importing the trailer and pointing to it in a terse put up on X: “Our trailer has leaked so please watch the actual factor on YouTube.”

It’s uncommon for a corporation like Rockstar to ignore its authentic, introduced schedule and simply put up the factor, however it’s not the primary time it’s occurred. When The Final of Us Half 2’s PlayStation 5 remaster was leaked early on the PlayStation Retailer by information miners searching for new info, hours later, an official trailer popped up on YouTube, with a number of distinguished Naughty Canine builders declaring that “leaks actually suck.” (In Naughty Canine’s case, nonetheless, timing for The Final of Us Half 2’s remaster wasn’t introduced, and it’s potential the YouTube launch was its deliberate time.)

Sometimes, within the occasion of a leak, an organization begins issuing takedown requests as rapidly as potential — which Rockstar did, after all — and waits it out till the deliberate debut. (We’ve seen this loads of instances when Pokémon video games leak early; Nintendo and The Pokémon Firm attempt to take issues down, however don’t acknowledge leaks head-on.) Within the case of GTA 6, the early launch of the trailer hasn’t diluted the hype, with the GTA 6 trailer reaching greater than 85 million views by Tuesday morning. It’s rapidly gaining on Rockstar’s debut Grand Theft Auto 5 trailer, which was revealed on Nov. 2, 2011, and has greater than 99 million views.

Picture: Rockstar Studios/Rockstar Video games

A number of Rockstar workers have expressed their upset emotions concerning the leak: “This fucking sucks,” one developer posted to X. (The put up, and the developer’s X account, have since been deleted.) The GTA 6 trailer wasn’t the primary online game trailer to be leaked, and it undoubtedly gained’t be the final in an web panorama the place everybody from followers to manufacturers is at all times combating for eyeballs.

For higher or worse, leaks have already turn into part of GTA 6’s journey to its launch — one thing that’s comparatively on theme, as Rockstar’s upcoming sport seemingly takes on the wrestle for web fame.

Grand Theft Auto is without doubt one of the online game trade’s most profitable properties, which makes it a sizzling goal for hackers and potential leaks. GTA 5 was launched 10 years in the past, and other people have been salivating ever since on the prospect of the sixth entry within the sequence. Rockstar has been quiet about GTA 6 for a lot of the previous 10 years; the studio didn’t acknowledge the sport was in improvement till February 2022. Later that yr, GTA 6 made historical past as Rockstar’s builders had been topic to one of many largest leaks in fashionable online game historical past.

On Sept. 18, 2022, a hacker revealed greater than 90 movies — roughly an hour’s price of footage — from the in-development sport. The leak was, and nonetheless is, unprecedented due to its sheer scope, the extent of anticipation for the sport in query, and due to how uncommon it’s for followers to see big elements of a AAA online game in a visibly unfinished state. The leaked footage depicted a GTA 6 that was clearly in improvement, with debug instruments, blocked-out environments, and all.

Picture: Rockstar Studios/Rockstar Video games

The hacker claimed to have accessed Rockstar’s inside Slack, which is an utility workplaces use to speak and share recordsdata. A United Kingdom courtroom discovered {that a} U.Ok.-based 18-year-old, Arion Kurtaj, was largely liable for the hack. Kurtaj had been beforehand arrested for different hacking incidents carried out in affiliation with infamous group Lapsus$, and he was out on bail when he went after Rockstar, Uber, and Revolut. Kurtaj’s hack of Rockstar was the final one he managed earlier than he was caught once more in a Travelodge lodge that he had been put up in following considerations for his security (he was beforehand doxxed by “rival hackers,” in response to the BBC). Kurtaj and a second 17-year-old hacker had been discovered responsible in August. The BBC reported that the prosecution’s lead barrister on the case, Kevin Barry, stated the hackers had been motivated by “notoriety,” “monetary acquire,” and “amusement.”

The injury had been carried out; many followers couldn’t resist the peek behind the scenes earlier than the actual present started. The hourlong clips within the leak gave keen GTA 6 followers a variety of materials to work by means of, and by September of this yr, the group had put collectively a 60-page doc outlining each single element from the leak.

Rockstar introduced in November that it will put up a trailer in December, information that was first reported by Bloomberg and rapidly confirmed by Rockstar. Final week, Rockstar lastly introduced a date for the trailer: Dec. 5. Within the lead-up to the trailer drop date, a number of fast movies had been uploaded to TikTok purporting to point out elements of the GTA 6 Vice Metropolis map; the video clips, which rapidly unfold, seemed to be recordings of a pc display screen. The supply and credibility of those uploads stays unconfirmed, however they do appear to match the cityscapes we’ve now seen within the professional trailer. Someplace alongside the best way, rumors began circulating that the leak got here from a Rockstar worker’s son, however Polygon is unable to confirm these claims. It’s inconceivable to inform, after all, whether or not the TikTok leaks got here from the identical supply as Dec. 4’s trailer leak.

GTA 6’s legacy of leaks not solely has an influence on how the group sees the sport, however it’s one thing that impacts builders, too. Rockstar is famously secretive — or maybe notoriously so — and leaks are typically thought of a uncommon look behind the scenes for followers, or perhaps a triumph for transparency. Sadly, although, leaks can typically have the other impact. Chatting with Wired in 2022, a AAA developer stated leaking can tighten issues up much more, making the trade extra opaque — even inside studios themselves. Typically, a “belief vacuum” types between departments as studios examine leaks internally, Wired reported. The participant expertise will hardly ever, if ever, be considerably altered by a leaked trailer or gameplay video, however the identical can’t be stated for the individuals making a leaked sport.