In a big shock to the company, early gameplay footage of GTA 6 was leaked, albeit unintentionally, two days ago. Here’s what Rockstar Games and other security experts think about the leak.
One of the biggest game leaks in the recent years, the early gameplay footage leak of GTA 6 has rocked Rockstar Games as well as gamers who were desperately waiting to hear news related to the highly anticipated sequel to GTA V, albeit not in this manner. Just two days ago, a hacker named “teapotuberhacker” leaked 90 early development gameplay videos of the next GTA game online on the GTAForums platform. Although Take Two Interactive, the publisher behind GTA games, immediately issued a takedown of the illegally obtained videos, they have already been reposted millions of times across the social media.
Statement by Rockstar Games
The genuineness of the videos was confirmed early by Bloomberg Reporter Jason Schreier through Rockstar sources. Now, Rockstar Games have also confirmed that it was indeed early development gameplay footage of GTA 6. Rockstar Games have also issued a statement following this security breach. The game developer tweeted that the hacker illegally obtained data from Rockstar’s servers which “included “early development footage” of the next Grand Theft Auto game.” Although the studio does not expect current development of the game to take a hit as they further tweeted, “Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned,” and “We will update everyone again soon and, of course, will properly introduce you to the next game when it is ready.”
Although the studio has tried to downplay the situation, this is a major disaster for the New York-based studio which is behind some of the best games ever made like GTA San Andreas, GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2.
What security experts say
Experts have weighed in on the current situation faced by Rockstar Games. Claire Tills, Senior Research Engineer at cybersecurity firm Tenable explained, “There isn’t enough information available to reasonably conclude that LAPSUS$ is behind the Rockstar Games leak. While the attacks linked to LAPSUS$ and the incident at Rockstar share tactics, they are relatively simple ones which isn’t a very convincing connection.”
It is also believed the same hacker is responsible for previous attacks on companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Samsung and Nvidia.
“Threat actors focus on opportunistic data theft and threats to publicly release the stolen data, attempting whatever tactics they deem necessary to put pressure on the victim to pay up, such as threatening customers, partners, insurers, investors and courting attention from the news and social media. In the case of Rockstar Games, the attacker is threatening to leak more Grand Theft Auto content, which Rockstar can allegedly prevent if it pays up,” Tills further added.
