What happened?
In the early hours of September 18, a poster on GTAForums named teapotuberhacker posted about 90 videos, totaling 50 minutes of footage from a development version of Rockstar Games’ upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 video game. Since then, the images have proliferated on social networks and the Internet in general. Shortly after the initial announcement, the hacker left a message on the forum saying he wanted to “negotiate a deal” with Rockstar for the return of unreleased data, including Grand Theft Auto 5 source code and the development version of Grand Theft. Car 6.
A large number of games clearly in progress, of all stages of development. Some of the images are simply short clips of animation tests: one such video shows a figure leaning out of a car window armed with a rifle, aiming in a smooth circle. In others, characters alternately walk and run to test animation progressions.
Other videos are more detailed. In one, a female character holds up a diner, pointing a gun at the cashier who places stacks of dollars on the counter, before the player collects the money and moves on. The scene is voiced and animated smoothly, but still unpolished, with character models and scenery lacking any of the detail expected from a finished game.
Even considering the unfinished nature of the clips, with debug commands and technical information overlaid, the leaked footage appears to confirm many reported details about the game, including the presence of a female playable character in the single-player campaign for first time, and the setting for today’s Vice City, GTA’s global equivalent of Miami, which appeared in 2002’s Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
is it genuine
Yes, according to our sources, and besides, it would be hard to fake the sheer amount of work involved without committing significant resources. GTA publisher Take-Two Interactive has acknowledged the leak and sent takedown requests to YouTube under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, claiming the company owns the copyright of the published images.
Where did it come from?
The hacker says the images were obtained by breaking into Rockstar’s Slack channel, the communication platform used for internal collaboration. All 90 videos were uploaded there, he says, and were easily downloaded.
Who leaked it?
Teapotuberhacker also claims responsibility for a recent Uber data breach, and the techniques used appear similar. In both cases, the messaging app Slack was a major entry point, where information shared between staff members was likely used to gain further access to sensitive data. But the Rockstar hack appears less serious than the Uber attack, which involved the attacker gaining administrative access to the entire network, even controlling the initial response to the hack itself by taking full control of the Slack account .
In the case of Rockstar, the hacker seems to want to shake up the company. In addition to the videos, which have already been posted on YouTube as evidence of the attack, he claims to have source code for the development versions of GTA 5 and GTA 6, and appears to be blackmailing the developer for it.
What is source code?
The actual code used to create software, which contains all the instructions that make a game work. The unauthorized release of the source code of a game like GTA 5 or 6 has a number of consequences, none of which are pleasant for a company like Rockstar. The most immediate result would be more information flow about the upcoming game, as players can analyze the code for hints of features and content not visible in the released videos. Depending on the integrity of the code that was stolen, it may even be possible to compile it into playable software, though it would likely be far from a full-featured game.
In the longer term, releasing source code for games like GTA risks revealing trade secrets of craftsmanship or engineering talent that have real value and increasing the possibility that pirated or knock-off versions of the game will be created and distributed.
What has Rockstar done about it so far?
Parent company Take-Two has issued takedown notices to social media accounts, YouTube channels and other sites posting the stolen footage. GTAForums, where the leak originally emerged, and the GTA subreddit claim that Take-Two has instructed them to remove posts and links related to the leak. The original GTAForum thread started by teapotuberhacker was deleted and later relaunched with all GTA 6 links and details removed.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Rockstar said: “We recently experienced a network intrusion in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage of the upcoming Grand Theft Auto .At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to our live gaming services or any long-term effects on the development of our ongoing projects.
“We are very disappointed to be able to share all the details of our next game in this way. Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned and we are as committed as ever to providing you, our players, an experience that truly exceeds your expectations. We’ll update everyone again soon, and of course we’ll properly introduce you to this next game when it’s ready. We want to thank everyone for their continued support in this situation.”
Why is this such bad news for Rockstar?
Any information about such a large game is tightly controlled, and a leak of this magnitude is almost unprecedented. There will be financial consequences as Rockstar investigates the leak and likely evaluates work practices. Publisher Take-Two may face a drop in its stock value as well as uncomfortable questions from shareholders.
And reputation-wise, this will negatively affect how Grand Theft Auto 6, which will likely be the greatest game of all time, is perceived when it finally releases. The gameplay footage in progress is obviously unfinished and not representative of the quality the developers will strive for. We’re already seeing footage being trashed on social media and forums by misinformed users questioning its perceived quality and content.
How has the game industry reacted?
With a mixture of shock and sympathy. Neil Druckmann, co-president of Uncharted developer Naughty Dog, tweeted: “To my fellow developers affected by the latest leak, know that although it feels overwhelming right now, it will happen. One day we will play your game, appreciating your craft, and leaks will be relegated to a footnote on a Wikipedia page. Keep pushing. Keep making art.” Similarly, messages of support have come from indie developer Rami Ismail, Xbox corporate vice president Sarah Bond and Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski.
What’s next?
The hacker has been using social media platforms to seek a response from Rockstar and is hoping to resell the unreleased data. It’s unlikely we’ll ever find out if the company makes such a deal. Since its announcement, Rockstar seems to be hoping to ride out the crisis, but an investigation into the origin of the hack has likely begun. There has been no further response from the hacker so far, but if the source code is released, this will be even worse for Rockstar as it will make the game vulnerable to more hacks and exploits when it launches.