As Take-Two works to identify the person or group behind the GTA 6 ‘CyberLeek’ account, one former Rockstar developer has insisted the recent spate of gameplay leaks will have little impact on the success of the game itself.
CyberLeek has released 10 GTA 6 gameplay videos and an image of the full map in the space of just six days, sparking a manhunt for the people responsible. Rockstar parent company Take-Two has subpoenaed Microsoft, Discord, and even X / Twitter, but the leaker appears undeterred, and is even running a crypto-fueled poll to determine which video to release next.
All this just a week before Netflix’s timed-exclusive reveal of GTA 6, which is set to fully unveil the game officially for the first time.
From a Take-Two and Rockstar perspective, significant damage is being done. According to Bloomberg, Rockstar still doesn’t know how these leaks happened, nor who is behind them. And while there are no plans to shift this week’s big Netflix reveal, Bloomberg reported that there is frustration and anger internally at recent events, with management sending morale-boosting emails to staff.
Former Rockstar Games technical director Obbe Vermeij, however, downplayed the damage caused by the leaks. Vermeij, who worked at Rockstar North from 1995 to 2009, took to social media to say the Hot Coffee scandal was much more damaging than these GTA 6 leaks.
“Calm down everybody. The leaks are a nothing burger,” Vermeij began.
“As a marketing strategy R* is trying to keep the game under wraps longer than other publishers. All that has happened is that some footage has escaped. Slightly ahead of the Netflix thing next week.
“90% of future players don’t spend their time on the internet looking for video snippets. They don’t have the time and don’t want spoilers.
“I imagine the teams are a little annoyed about it but not more than that. I was there during Hot Coffee. It was a nightmare for management (R*NewYork) but didn’t affect us (R*North) much. The current leaks are far less consequential than HC was.
“It looks like GTA 6 will be phenomenal and sell for the next 15 years or so. The leaks are just a tiny blip.”
The Hot Coffee scandal was a 2005 controversy involving a hidden, sexually explicit mini-game inside Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Modders discovered that unfinished code left on game discs allowed players to unlock a crude, interactive sex scene, leading to political outrage, a temporary “Adults Only” rating, and multimillion-dollar settlements for Rockstar Games.
“No, it really hurt,” Vermeij said of Hot Coffee. “The game had to be withdrawn from stores in the USA. It could only be sold as 18+ until the new version was ready. It is estimated to have cost $50 million which was a lot of money for R*/T2 at the time.”
Speaking to Lex Fridman in October last year, Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser said the company “nearly imploded several times due to Hot Coffee,” adding: “It was extremely tough.”
There is growing concern that CyberLeek may spoil the GTA 6 story by releasing plot-critical cutscenes. So far, that hasn’t happened, but even if it did, Vermeij downplayed the impact. “That would suck but people will still play it,” he said.
There is also speculation that CyberLeek has a working build of GTA 6, based on some of the gameplay shown in the leaks. “If that is the case it probably only runs on a devkit,” Vermeij insisted. “Devkits have more memory. There probably isn’t a build in existence that would run on a retail PS5 at the moment.”
GTA 6 is expected to be the biggest entertainment launch of all time, setting records for sales and revenue. As Vermeij says, the gameplay leaks are unlikely to threaten the success of the game’s November launch. But they remain part of what is a significant security breach for Take-Two and Rockstar, one that will no doubt affect the morale of staff who have spent years building the game. They also potentially dampen the impact of the timed-exclusive reveal on Netflix, which I imagine isn’t thrilled by what’s going on.
Neither Take-Two nor Rockstar has issued a statement on the GTA 6 leaks. IGN has asked for comment.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
