The GTA 6 leak cost Rockstar $5 million and "thousands of hours of staff time"

Last year's GTA 6 leak cost Rockstar $5 million plus "thousands of hours of staff time," the developer told a UK court. 

On December 21, the BBC reported that Arion Kurtaj, a key member of the international hacking group Lapsus$, had been sentenced to indefinite life in a hospital prison due to his alleged involvement in the GTA 6 leak, and "intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible." 

During the proceedings, Rockstar told the court that the hack had cost the company $5 million to recover, plus "thousands of hours' worth of staff time." The leak, which took place in September 2022, released over 90 screenshots and videos of an early build of GTA 6 - which at this point had barely been announced as in development. 

In July 2023, several months after his initial arrest, Kurtaj was deemed psychiatrically unfit for trial. Then, just a month later, it was discovered that Kurtaj had hacked Rockstar from a hotel room using an Amazon Firestick, TV, and mobile phone - resulting in him being re-arrested.

Although the leak was "extremely" disappointing for Rockstar, it seems the developer more than made it up to fans when it released the official GTA 6 trailer earlier this month. Unfortunately, this wasn't without its issues, as the trailer leaked a day earlier than its official reveal. 

Rockstar isn't the only studio to have recently suffered this kind of cyber attack. Last week, it was reported that Insomniac Games (developer of Marvel's Spider-Man 2) had been hacked by a different group who had obtained information on the studio's upcoming game, Marvel's Wolverine, as well as employee data. Following the attack, there have been plenty of Marvel's Wolverine leaks floating around online.

The GTA 6 trailer confirmed what we already knew: that GTA 6 leak was never anything to worry about, and leaks are very often pointless.