GTA 6 in-development footage leaked
American video game publisher Rockstar Games has suffered an unfortunate data leak: someone has released online in-development footage/videos for Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 6, the eagerly anticipated instalment of the popular game.
“Its possible i could leak more data soon, GTA 5 and 6 source code and assets, GTA 6 testing build,” added the individual, who goes by the handle “teapotuberhacker” on GTAForums.
The leaker claims to be the same person who breached Uber last week, and claims to have exfiltrated it all from the company’s internal Slack workspaces.
How did it happen?
Rockstar Games has yet to comment on any of the claims, but is working on getting the leaked videos removed from YouTube.
Bloomberg reporter Hason Schreier says sources from within the company say the leaked footage is real.
After getting the attention of Rockstar Games and its parent company Take-Two Interactive, the leaker is seemingly open to not releasing the rest of the stolen materials if they get what they want (probably money, but possibly other things as well).
“i am looking to negotiate a deal”
GTA VI leaker says they’ve woken up to thousands of messages and are calling on people from Rockstar/Take Two to contact them. pic.twitter.com/cnPs57NAt7
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) September 18, 2022
The purported leaker has also been trying to sell stolen GTA 5 source code on Telegram, and has leaked code snippets to prove they have it. The offer has already been taken advantage of by a scammer, it seems.
It is still too early to know whether the leaked material has been stolen by an outside attacker or an insider. The leaker’s claim that they were also behind the Uber attack is currently unsubstantiated.
UPDATE (September 19, 2022, 09:35 a.m. ET):
“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,” Rockstar Games confirmed.