Rockstar acknowledges massive GTA 6 leak: "We are extremely disappointed"

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Rockstar confirms a network intrusion by an "unauthorized third party"

Trevor, Michael, and Franklin in GTA 5
(Image credit: Rockstar Games)

Rockstar Games has officially acknowledged an enormous GTA 6 leak which spilled dozens of videos and screenshots of the hotly anticipated sequel over the weekend. 

"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," a Twitter statement from the studio reads. 

"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," Rockstar says, seemingly addressing concerns that a leak of this size could force the studio to scrap and redo non-trivial portions of GTA 6. Rockstar further affirms that "our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned."

"We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way," Rockstar says, echoing the commiserating statements shared by many high-profile game developers over the weekend. 

 "We remain as committed as ever to delivering an experience to you, our players, that truly exceeds your expectations," Rockstar says, doubling down on a previous comment that the game must be "the best it can possibly be." 

"We will update everyone again soon and, of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready," the statement concludes.  

The scope and impact of this near-unprecedented leak are still being worked out. Rockstar has seemingly begun striking leaked media from community hubs like forums and Rockstar-adjacent subreddits. However, as Axios reported, the hacker behind the leak claims to have more data in reserve and is threatening to release it as they purportedly seek to "negotiate a deal."  

Despite rumors and reports going back years, Rockstar didn't officially confirm that GTA 6 is in active development until this February. The studio subsequently killed "major themed content updates" for Red Dead Online as it put all hands on deck for the mammoth sequel. 

A report from August claimed that GTA 6 featured four protagonists and three cities before being scaled back. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.