Rockstar employees frustrated by GTA 6 leaks, though they may have only whet appetites for the reveal

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reports that some Rockstar employees are feeling "angry" and "frustrated" that, despite submitting to strict security measures following the 2022 hack that revealed Grand Theft Auto 6 to the world—namely the abolishment of remote work—a leak has once again sprung.

Someone going by the name "Cyberleek" has been posting new GTA 6 gameplay clips every day for the past few days. The leaker may even have access to a build of GTA 6, though it's unclear if it's the full game or only a portion.

Meanwhile, the official GTA 6 reveal is still scheduled for next week, and will still air exclusively on Netflix for the first six hours.

It's unlikely that the leaks will have any measurable impact on GTA 6's sales. It's already sold an "unprecedented" number of preorders, according to Take-Two. I doubt the Netflix reveal will be harmed, either: The circulating gameplay clips make it slightly less of an event, but the leaker's low-quality, watermarked videos have only whet my appetite for the proper reveal.

It's easy to find similar sentiments around the internet: "I was a little hyped for GTA 6 but after the leaks I'm even more hyped than ever and can't wait for the extended look," says one poster.

One thing I like about the existence of the leaked footage is that it offers a more realistic view of GTA 6 gameplay than we're likely to see during the highly-polished official reveal. The leaker's clips make the game look impressive, especially the flyover of Vice City, but the footage is the opposite of carefully-staged.

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At one point, for example, the leaker momentarily struggles to exit a river, freestyle swimming into a concrete embankment for a few strokes before the walking animation kicks in. I don't know of any game that entirely avoids that kind of minor jank, but it's not something you're going to see on Netflix.

But I'd be frustrated too if my work were being shown off so shoddily, especially after jumping through hoops to satisfy corporate security measures.

Worse, Rockstar recently fired more than 30 employees on the basis that they were discussing work matters in a private Discord channel which they had been using for labor organizing. Whether that was a harsh reaction to a genuine security lapse or "one of the most blatant and ruthless acts of union busting in the history of the games industry" will be argued in court next month.

There is nothing to connect those ex-employees to this week's leaks, and I can only imagine the nuclear-grade facepalming they've been doing as an anonymous leaker goes wild while they were fired for a private Discord conversation that didn't leak anything.

Which isn't to say that Cyberleek is likely to escape consequence: Rockstar is presently trying to track them down, and has filed subpoenas with Microsoft and Discord related to the videos. One perpetrator of the 2022 Rockstar hack is currently in prison awaiting a retrial after being held in a secure hospital since 2023.

In the end, I expect that Cyberleek will determine that the clout and crypto gains were not worth it, but it remains to be seen how good they are at running from Rockstar's figurative black helicopters. (Or maybe literal black helicopters, knowing Rockstar.)