Rockstar Games Leak
Beichen Poque
The 18-year-old hacker charged with breaking into Rockstar's data and leaking at least 90 videos worth of GTA 6 development materials has been sentenced by a UK court to indefinite life in a hospital prison.
In July, Kurtaj was deemed psychiatrically unfit for trial, shifting the jury's focus away from a standard verdict of guilty or not guilty, and toward determining whether the alleged hacks were actually committed.
Not a month later, we learned that Kurtaj's hack on Rockstar was carried out in a hotel room, well after his laptop was confiscated following a previous hack, using an Amazon Firestick, a hotel TV, and a mobile phone. He was quickly re-arrested.
Kurtaj was accused alongside a 17-year-old member of the same hacking group, Lapsus$, who was likewise accused of blackmail, fraud, and charges under the Computer Misuse Act. Rockstar was far from Lapsus$'s only target, with Nvidia to Microsoft to phone companies reporting hacks.
Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible."}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Austin WoodSocial Links NavigationAustin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.
The earliest of GTA 6 leaks was one some fans once deemed fake. However, it was real and Rockstar Games phoned up the man who received the information from a leaker. He has now shared his story following the closure of the company put out the leak.
This was the same codename that could be seen in the videos and video clip file names from the massive GTA 6 gameplay leak in 2022. The teen hacker who released these videos is currently in a indefinite hospital stay due to his crimes. This became one piece of evidence the leak from The Know was real.
The video went onto explain why the game was codenamed Project Americas. Players would be able to fly from Vice City to South America during missions. This part of GTA 6 was scrapped according to a 2022 report by Bloomberg. Rockstar decided the game needed to be reduced in scope and have since focused on just Miami and the surrounding areas. When Rockstar revealed GTA VI, we learned Vice City would be the main city with plenty of other parts in the state of Leonida.
Following the closure of Rooster Teeth and Inside Gaming, the writer of The Know episode went on the Inside Games Podcast (ex-IG employee ran channel) to discuss Rooster Teeth. Brian Gaar explained that he received the inside info from someone who confirmed their legitimacy.
Following years of speculation and anticipation, Rockstar confirmed in February 2022 that the game was in development. That September, footage from unfinished versions was leaked online in what journalists described as one of the biggest leaks in the history of the video game industry. The game was formally revealed in December 2023 and is scheduled to be released in late 2025 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
In November 2023, Rockstar president Sam Houser announced the first trailer would release in early December to celebrate the company's 25th anniversary.[36][37] Within five hours, the announcement on X (formerly Twitter) surpassed two previous posts about the game to become the platform's most-liked gaming-related post,[38][39][40] later surpassed by Rockstar's post announcing the trailer's 5 December release date, with 1.8 million likes in 24 hours.[41] Other developers imitated the announcement's formatting to promote their trailers.[42][43][15] On 4 December, a low-quality version of the trailer was leaked on X; in response, Rockstar published the official version on YouTube, revealing the title, protagonists, setting, and release window of 2025 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.[44][45][46]
The trailer broke the record for most first-day views on a non-music YouTube video within 12 hours, with 46 million,[47][48] and, within 24 hours, became the third-most-viewed overall, with 93 million,[49][50][51] and most-liked game trailer, with 8.9 million.[52][53] It surpassed the lifetime viewership of Grand Theft Auto V's 2011 reveal trailer within two days, with 101 million views,[54] and became the second-most-viewed game trailer by January, with 168 million.[55] Its featured song, Tom Petty's "Love Is a Long Road", saw a near-37,000% increase in Spotify streams, had almost 250,000 searches on Shazam, and ranked second on the worldwide iTunes chart.[56] The trailer spawned fan-created recreations in other video games, as a brickfilm, and in live-action by the Hyundai World Rally Team.[57][58][59]
In February 2024, Schreier reported that Rockstar requested employees cease remote work and return to offices full time from 15 April "for productivity and security" as development entered its "final stages".[60][61][62] The Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain criticised the decision for contradicting Rockstar's earlier promise to maintain flexible working conditions, with some employees concerned it could negatively impact staff health and morale and lead to resignations and crunch conditions.[62][63] In March, Kotaku's Zack Zwiezen reported the decision was partly to avoid a delay from the internally scheduled early 2025 release window; development "falling behind" meant late 2025 seemed more practical, with a potential delay to 2026 as a "fallback plan".[64][65] Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive's share price consequently dropped by more than five per cent.[66] Other journalists refuted the report, noting the game remained "on schedule",[67] and Schreier wrote there was no indication development had been impacted.[68] In May, Take-Two confirmed the game was scheduled for late 2025.[69]
On 18 September 2022, a user known as "teapotuberhacker"[c] published 90 videos to GTAForums showing 50 minutes of work-in-progress game footage.[72] Schreier confirmed with sources at Rockstar that the footage was genuine,[73] and The Guardian reported it was from several stages of development,[72] with some videos about a year old.[4] The footage revealed a modern-day Vice City setting, contained animation and gameplay tests, level layouts, and character conversations, and depicted player characters Lucia and Jason entering a strip club and robbing a diner.[4][14] The hacker claimed to be behind the Uber security breach from the earlier week.[73][74] They said they downloaded the files directly from Rockstar's internal Slack groups,[75] and claimed to possess source code, assets, and internal builds of Grand Theft Auto V and VI, which they threatened to publish.[73]
Take-Two responded by submitting takedowns of videos showing or discussing the leaks hosted on YouTube,[72][76] and contacted GTAForums and Reddit moderators to remove access.[77] The hacker wrote they were "looking to negotiate a deal" with Rockstar or Take-Two.[78] Journalists described the event as one of the biggest leaks in video game history;[79][80][81] Schreier called it "a nightmare for Rockstar Games" which could limit employees' remote work flexibility.[82][83] The Jefferies Group analyst Andrew Uerkwitz called it a "PR disaster" that could potentially delay the game and diminish staff morale, but was unlikely to impact reception or sales.[84][85] The Guardian noted the leaked footage was being widely criticised "by ill-informed users" due to its quality, despite not being representative of the final product.[72] Some users erroneously claimed graphics and art assets are finalised early in game development. In solidarity, several developers shared work-in-progress footage of their games[86][87][88] and some, including Cliff Bleszinski, Neil Druckmann, Rami Ismail, and Alanah Pearce, offered sympathies to Rockstar.[4][72][89]
On 19 September, Rockstar confirmed the leak to be a "network intrusion" and lamented how the game was first demonstrated but did not anticipate long-term effects on development.[90] They disabled comments and replies on their social media accounts in the days following the leak.[71] Take-Two added that steps had been taken "to isolate and contain this incident".[84] Take-Two's share price dropped by more than six per cent in pre-market trading that day,[84][85] but recovered during regular trading hours following their statement.[91] Uber acknowledged the potential links to their security breach and noted they were working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Justice. They believed the hacker was affiliated with the group Lapsus$, which was thought to have breached companies such as Microsoft, Nvidia, and Samsung over the preceding year.[92][93] Zelnick said the incident caused the companies to become more vigilant with cybersecurity and had impacted staff emotionally but business remained unaffected.[94][95] Rockstar later claimed the incident cost the company US$5 million and thousands of staff hours to recover.[96]
Rockstar Games is reckoning with a leak from their unreleased Grand Theft Auto VI. On Monday (September 19), the video game company confirmed that unauthorized gameplay from the forthcoming game went online due to a hack of their network. The user, teapotuberhacker," who posted the gameplay on social media and GTAForums, claimed they also hacked into Uber last week, per Forbes.
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