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Rockstar hack results in Grand Theft Auto 6 footage leak

Rockstar hack results in Grand Theft Auto 6 footage leak

Games giant Rockstar has been the victim of a hack in which a bad actor made off with development footage of Grand Theft Auto 6.

In a release to investors, parent company Take-Two said that developer Rockstar Game had been on the receiving end of a "network intrusion" where a hacker was able to download over 90 gameplay videos. Many of these have been taken down by Take-Two using DMCA strikes, which already confirmed that they were real before the company publicly addressed the news.

The hacker claims to be the same bad actor who took down tech firm Uber not so long ago, and is seemingly looking to "negotiate a deal" with Take-Two. We're going to presume that the ever-litigious games giant is far more likely to sue them into oblivion than strike a deal.

"Rockstar Games recently experienced a network intrusion in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from its systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto," the company wrote.

"Current Rockstar Games services are unaffected. We have already taken steps to isolate and contain this incident.

"Work on the game will continue as planned. At this time, Rockstar Games does not anticipate any disruption to its current services nor any long-term effect on its development timelines as a result of this incident."

The developer continued on Twitter: "We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way. 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. We will update everyone again soon and, of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready. We want to thank everyone for their ongoing support through this situation."


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.