Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto VI has become notorious for leaks. Details about the game have leaked several times over the course of the past year or two. First, there was the infamous September 2022 leak in which two underage hackers (one of which is now 18+) leaked over 90 videos and a bunch of other assets from the game, showcasing a pre-Alpha, in-progress version of an early, early build of the game.
Next, Bloomberg leaked some details about the game including that an announcement for the trailer was coming later that week (although technically, this ain’t a leak as no unauthorized material was posted). Then, a day before the trailer’s launch, Rockstar Art Director Aaron Garbut’s son (or a friend of his) leaked a few cityscape shots on his Tiktok channel.
You’d think that would be the end of it, but no. A few hours before the first trailer was set to premiere, the trailer leaked in its entirety watermarked by a Bitcoin logo nonetheless. The leak spurred Rockstar into action, prompting them to release the original trailer earlier than intented. True to the spirit of their games, Rockstar addressed the leak in a cheeky manner in its accompanying post.
Developers within Rockstar were quite upset at the leak, with some taking to Twitter to express their reactions in the form of frustration and direct anger towards the leak. Some of those tweets were taken down, but a few have remained and the devs are visibly upset. Their emotions not only condemn the leak, but also express regret at the meticulously planned launch being botched to a certain extent due to the actions of some immature attention-seekers.
Jay Marsden-Bullen, Associate AI/Gameplay Programmer at Rockstar North was sad at the nature of the reveal, but happy at the world finally getting a chance to see what they’ve been working on:
Matthew Renie, also an AI/Gameplay Programmer, pretty much had the same thoughts. Displeasure at the reveal, and yet excitement about showing off his work.
Associate Gameplay Systems Engineer Zara was likewise disappointed at the reveal, but expressed excitement at getting to work with fellow colleagues on something special.
The leak was widely condemned by folks in the video game industry. Notably, Josh Stein, Senior Social Media Manager at Xbox, explained in a well-laid out tweet how leaks like these not only screw planned launches, but lead to an all-hands-on-deck situation requiring team members to cancel family plans and scramble to respond to the leak.
While the cat and mouse game of leak/not leaked is fun to follow on social. Let me tell you it sucks from the inside.
Teams work literally hours, days, weeks, nights, to build the best rollout to capture the attention of social media and go loud and proud for the community. Leaks utterly ruin that and waste a ton of work and also risk flat spinning your whole marketing message.
There’s going to be a lot of people missing time with family, friends, love ones tonight b/c they have to work late hours to accommodate for a leak. As someone who went through it myself, it sucks the fun outta marketing and I wish it never happened.
The early leak could have also eaten into Rockstar’s views as many were caught off-guard when they woke up to find the trailer already live on YouTube, messing with their planned schedules. And it also robbed fans the chance of experiencing the trailer go live at the same time.
Fortunately, the trailer has blown past expectations, crossing 100 million views in 24 hours and setting numerous records in the process. Even the song used in the trailer has seen a massive surge in popularity on streaming platforms. All in all, Rockstar may have been unable to launch the trailer the way it intended, but it most certainly got the reaction it expected.
Grand Theft Auto VI is slated to arrive on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S with no mention of a PC version (yet). Head over to this piece to further narrow down that release window.
