Rockstar Acknowledges Gargantuan Grand Theft Auto 6 Leak

Rockstar has acknowledged the massive leak of Grand Theft Auto 6 in-progress development material that took place over the weekend.

In a statement released this afternoon TwitterAs the company returned to work, Rockstar admitted it experienced a “network intrusion” – a hack – from which the first GTA 6 dev footage was extracted.

Rockstar said it hoped the hack wouldn’t impact its live services – such as GTA Online – and insisted the leak wouldn’t impact the game’s development in the long run. . Still, Rockstar admitted it was “extremely disappointed” with what happened.

Here is the statement in full:

“We recently experienced a network breach in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development images for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto.

“At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to our live gaming services, or any long-term effects on the development of our ongoing projects.

“We are extremely disappointed that the details of our next game are being shared with you all in this way. Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned and we remain more committed than ever to delivering an experience to you, our players. , which really exceeds your expectations.

“We’ll update everyone again soon and of course we’ll properly introduce you to this next game when it’s ready. We want to thank everyone for their continued support in this situation.”

Yesterday’s leak was unprecedented in scope, with an astonishing amount of material now in the public domain.

Rockstar’s attorneys have been busy cleaning up as much of the internet as possible, but after a quick check this afternoon Eurogamer were still able to quickly find copies of yesterday’s leaked footage doing the rounds – with nearly one hour of video available in total.

Prior to Rockstar’s confirmation that the footage was legit, the sheer scale of the leaked footage and the amount of work shown all proved it was real. Meanwhile, the leaked details also seemed to match what was previously reported – that GTA 6 will feature a pair of Bonnie and Clyde-like protagonists, and the action will take place in and around a modern vice. City (the equivalent of the Miami franchise).

Condemnation for the leak came quickly from other game developers, including Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann and God of War creative director Cory Barlog.

“To my fellow developers affected by the latest leak, please know that while this seems overwhelming right now, it will pass,” Druckmann wrote on Twitter. “One day we’ll play your game, enjoy your craft, and leaks will be relegated to a footnote on a Wikipedia page. Keep pushing. Keep making art.”

Barlog, on the other hand, was more succinct.

In July of this year, it was reported that GTA6 was still several years away from release.

Rockstar itself has remained largely silent on the project, even as it diverts development resources from other games – such as Red Dead Online – to focus squarely on GTA6. In August, however, publisher Take-Two spoke optimistically about GTA6 setting “creative benchmarks” for “all entertainment”.