Although many fans of the Grand Theft Auto franchise were positive that a new chapter after GTA 5 and many years of silence would come, Rockstar Games' official announcement of Grand Theft Auto 6 in February of this year made millions of players happy. GTA 6 has been a long time coming, with GTA 5 celebrating its ninth anniversary just a few days ago, right before one of the biggest leaks in the gaming industry took place at the hands of a hacker. The leaker managed to gain access to all sorts of gameplay footage for GTA 6 from a Rockstar Games employee's communication channels and then proceeded to share them online alongside listings for GTA 5's source code.
The videos show the game's two protagonists, with one of them being a woman called Lucia, which ties back to previous reports of GTA 6 featuring a female lead character, who in this case is accompanied by a man named Jason. All the GTA 6 footage alone is enough damage to Rockstar Games, which hadn't officially revealed any sort of detail about the upcoming game beforehand, including its protagonists, but the source code being out in the open is a different beast entirely. Very recently, a message that acknowledges the leak as legitimate was issued on Rockstar Games' socials, with the promise on the company's part to go ahead with its work as intended.
What The Massive GTA 6 Leaks Could Mean For Rockstar Games
Despite its statement regarding the leaks, Rockstar Games is still likely going to face many branching consequences when it comes to its work on GTA 6 and the company's internal policies. The hacker claims that they got access to the videos and the game's source code by phishing a Rockstar Games employee and then grabbing links and documents from their Slack account. Known Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier followed up with the developer confirming the Grand Theft Auto 6 leak is real, and that it will be a nightmare for the company to deal with, possibly alluding to side effects further down the line.
While the immediate-to-long-term consequences can vary, it's possible that the internal policy at Rockstar Games will change as a result. For example, there could be fewer job listings for WFH positions in the future, and current work-from-home benefits for developers could be partially revoked or revised to prevent similar issues from ever arising again. This doesn't necessarily apply to Rockstar Games alone, but it could become the spark that ignites an industry-wide shift in WFH policies and the best practices for sharing work with fellow developers online way beyond Grand Theft Auto 6.
GTA 6's intended release date, which never made it to the public before the leak, could be pushed further to readjust assets, code, or even some of the defining gameplay features. The source code being in the open is much more threatening than actual alpha footage because, even if the string of code shared by the leaker is not for the whole game, it could still be used if unchanged to affect the experience of anyone playing online, be it via cheats or other forms of malicious behavior that goes to benefit the user or other people.
Not only that, but if the code for GTA 6 is similar to a degree to that of GTA 5, which the hacker put up for sale, there could still be repercussions on the way Rockstar Games moves forward. There's also the fact that Grand Theft Auto 6 hacker's name was used in a scam to get over $100,000 for GTA 5's code, even though the leaker claims not to have been paid. Furthermore, this person also seems to be planning the auction of GTA 6's source code in case they don't get what they asked for from Rockstar Games. Overall, the whole ordeal is quite grim, even if some players are just happilyhoping for the prospect of GTA 6 launching sooner than they anticipated.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is in development.