Not only are forums and Reddit pages being made inaccessible, but the creators of GTA VI are also preparing to take legal action.
The recent leak of GTA VI was one of the biggest scandals in the history of the games industry, so the official response will inevitably be swift and deterrent enough. It appears that the reaction has begun: Rockstar Games has confirmed in a statement that the company suffered a “network intrusion” where an “unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto.”
The statement also expresses that Rockstar is “extremely disappointed” that details of GTA VI were “shared in this way” and says the studio will “properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready.” It adds that work on the game will continue “.
They add that work on the game will continue “as planned”, suggesting that the leak will not affect the game’s planned development, as was the case with Half-Life 2. You can read the complete statement at the end of the article.
Meanwhile, Take-Two Interactive has sent a notice to several websites to remove the footage (and links to the footage). Take-Two’s response began late last night, with several YouTube videos showing the leaked footage being removed at the company’s request. Take-Two has also sent a takedown notice to two major GTA communities, namely the GTA VI subreddit page and GTAForums, the original source of the leak.
As reported by VGC, the GTA VI subreddit has been temporarily shut down while moderators cleaned it of all images of the leaked material.
It has since been reopened with a warning that “no one can post links, photos and videos of the recent leaks” to protect the subreddit from being “obliterated by Rockstar Games.”
Moreover, the GTAForums topic that started the whole thing was also taken down, while links to the leaked material were either removed or otherwise hidden. The topic is now back online, but it is locked with a message: “All sensitive media in this thread has been hidden and the thread has been made public again for archival reasons.”
Take-Two has also addressed the leak in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, confirming that ongoing projects and online services are not affected and that it has “already taken steps to isolate and contain this incident.”
The leak initially appeared on GTAForums early Sunday morning and seemed to result from a social engineering hack.
The leaker, variously nicknamed “Tea Pot”, has also claimed responsibility for a recent hack involving Uber. After weighing the authenticity of the footage, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier confirmed that the leak was legitimate. After the leak went viral, Tea Pot updated his original post with a message to Rockstar and Take-Two, claiming he wanted to “discuss a deal”, though he did not elaborate on the nature of the deal he proposed.
A Message from Rockstar Games pic.twitter.com/T4Wztu8RW8
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) September 19, 2022
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