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Rockstar Games has released a statement on its social media accounts in response to the unauthorised video release of over an hour of Grand Theft Auto 6 alpha-build gameplay footage over the last weekend.
“We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorised third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto. At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to our live game services nor any long-term effect on the development of our ongoing projects.” said the developer on Twitter.
“We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way. Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned and we remain as committed as ever to delivering an experience to you, our players, that truly exceeds your expectations. We will update everyone again soon and, of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready. We want to thank everyone for their ongoing support through this situation.”
Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that the studio’s next open world game has been in development since 2014, and that the project had continued under the team’s new leadership after executive producer and writer Dan Houser had left the company. Rumours also said that the title would take place in Vice City. The footage, which has been confirmed as legitimate by both Take-Two and Rockstar, seems to confirm those rumours.
A hacker going by the alias of Tea Pot has taken credit for both the hack and the videos posted, and the user has claimed that they were trying to “negotiate a deal,” with the developer. They have inferred that they are in possession of the source codes for both GTA 5 and GTA 6 and are now basically holding the developer at a ransom.
Take-Two’s lawyers have taken to scrubbing any and all images and footage of the upcoming game and its associated data breach from the internet, but with Tea Pot’s identity still unknown, and the hacker still at large, we’re sure that there will be more on this story to follow.
