The teams of take two and of Rockstar had to live a Sunday like no other yesterday. Without warning, a hacker published more than 90 videos representing a pre-alpha version of GTA 6, which revealed plenty of details about what the game could be like in a few years. If we still had doubts about the veracity of these videos (because some people thought they were mods on GTA 5), Take-Two has started a major cleanup and is hunting for leaks.
The leaks are confirmed
Take Two has requested has the GTAforum remove the thread containing the leaked information. In addition, the hackers account now has 0 posts that are live.
Several Twitter accounts appearing to be the hacker have also popped up, but all seem to be impersonators. pic.twitter.com/6Zxb235miz
—Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) September 19, 2022
The publisher first attacked the source with GTAForums by asking for the withdrawal of the topic in which we could find the links to download the leaks.
Overnight, many YouTube and Twitter users had their videos and tweets taken down following DMCA complaints, in other words, copyright stories, an indirect way of confirming that all these videos were indeed from Rockstar.
A real soap opera
For his part, the hacker seems to be playing with the nerves of the studio and the publisher. According Tom Hendersonhe would have first declared that he was ready to sell the source code of GTA 5 that he would have in his possessionbut that he would not sell it for a sum not exceeding 5 figures.
You may have been able to see that night a rumor with images of a transaction for this source code, which was allegedly sold for $100,000 via Bitcoin. Know that this is all wrong (someone simply pretended to be the hacker in question), and that to date, there is no sale that has been formalized.
As for the source code of GTA 6, the hacker would have declared that it would not be for sale at the moment. Probably to better negotiate with Rockstar, although again, we do not know if the studio has started negotiations or not. It would also seem that the latter is gradually removing all his traces on social networks in order to escape the authorities.
The consequences for Rockstar?
Once again, remember that there is no proof that this hacker is in possession of the source code of these two games. It is therefore important not to jump to conclusions at this time.
What would it mean if these source codes ended up in the wild? Certainly, it would be very problematic for the studioand that would cause major problems for the development team, which could lead to a delay in the release of GTA 6 and changes in the way of communicating for the studio, not to mention the working from home conditions that could change.
Would this cause Rockstar to shut down? No, probably not (really no). Despite the spectacular side of this whole story, we must put it into perspective and remember the hack of the source code of Half Life 2 which did not lead to the closure of Valve (even if the situation was very tense), nor questioned the sales of the game, and this even if it did indeed cause harm to the studio.
Rockstar will probably get over it, and when GTA 6 will really come out, there is no doubt that everyone will have forgotten this unfortunate affair. But the weeks ahead aren’t going to be easy, and it’s going to take time for the teams to recover from all of this..
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