In a new statement posted to social media, Rockstar acknowledged the leaks and confirmed that the gameplay footage circling around is in fact from an early build of GTA 6. Not only that, but the developer also confirmed that they had been victim to a large external attack in which the hacker was able to steal a lot of confidential data, which means that the hacker’s claims have been right so far.
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) September 19, 2022 Obviously, this is devastating news to the hardworking, passionate and completely innocent developers working daily on the game. They have no control over how GTA 6 is revealed or marketed, but they have been surely giving their all to finish the title in time. And to see all of their efforts just leaked out into oblivion like that would be a nightmare. Unfortunately, for Rockstar, this nightmare has become their reality. Rockstar shares a similar sentiment in their official statement saying how they never wanted to show the first glimpse of the next GTA this way. More importantly, they will return at a future data to showcase the game properly with an actual reveal from the developer. However, considering how things currently are, it will probably be a while before we see that happen.
Even more GTA 6 leaks
Speaking of which, the hacker behind this whole attack has shared even more details, this time pertaining to the release schedule of the game. The following details were shared on Twitter by the infamous hacker, we will not embed the tweet here but you can see a general summary below: As you can see above, the hacker has gone out of their way to state that the game is scheduled for a 2024 release, along with budget estimates for marketing and production. Keep in mind that GTA V had a total development and advertising cost of around ~250 million USD. If the numbers stated above are true then that would make GTA 6 by far the most expensive video game ever made with a total budget of $600 million USD. Rockstar expects to almost double that within the first day alone, which would actually be a generous estimate since GTA 5 made $800 million dollars in its first 24 hours of sales. All in all, it seems as if Rockstar is trying to play it cool and keep internal focus on the development of the game. They don’t to steer away and into damage control too much, though we have seen a handful of DMCA strikes and issues from Rockstar’s legal teams over GTA 6 leaked content. We here at Appuals strictly condone the leaks and do not intend any copyright infringement. This coverage is solely for journalistic purposes only.
