GTA 6 Leaks Force Rockstar Into Court Action
Repeated gameplay leaks by a group calling itself Cyberleek have pushed Take-Two Interactive to seek user data from Microsoft and Discord ahead of the November release
Unauthorised game footage for Grand Theft Auto VI has been creating a legal battle between publisher Take-Two Interactive and both the companies of Microsoft and Discord. The leaks started in mid-August 2026, causing billions to be knocked off Take-Two's share price. Rockstar has issued DMCA takedowns, but hasn't confirmed the authenticity of the footage as its November 19 launch nears.
AdvertisementNumerous Breaches Lead to November Launch
Rockstar Games' latest and longest awaited game in more than a decade, Grand Theft Auto VI, has been plagued by another round of unauthorised teaser video leaks just three months before its official release. The "Cyberleek" leaker shows to have been able to get into an actual playable version starting around August 18th, 2026, and has been posting clips all week since.
There are at least six clips that allegedly depict gameplay, some involving a boat scene, a car chase with police pursuit and footage of a plane, Axios reports. To date, Rockstar has issued DMCA takedown notices against users posting the footage and an “alleged map,” but has not yet confirmed the authenticity of the footage or map.
AdvertisementTake-Two Turns to the Courts
The amount of the leak has led to official litigation. Two more federal court motions for subpoenas have been filed by Take-Two Interactive in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to obtain information from Microsoft and Discord about the leaks.
The filed documents depict the copyrighted content in dispute to be audiovisual content, artwork, images, dialogue and other creative components, and Take-Two claims that the infringers include violators of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Market Impact and Motive
It was not to be a long-term tragedy, but a short-term financial disaster for the people of West Springfield. During the leaks, Take-Two Interactive suffered a $2 billion drop in market capitalisation, although it has recovered since.
The motive given by the leaker is not just for monetary ransom. The hacker's attempt was described as "protest" against the trend of the gaming industry towards all-digital releases, with a criticism from Cyberleek towards the publishers who sell licenses as purchases and lock content behind paid downloadable additional features.
AdvertisementReaction from players is mixed, with some showing some sympathy for Rockstar's developers, whilst others pointed out that the company had brought the backlash on their own.
A Pattern since 2022
It's not the first such crisis for Rockstar. In 2022, the studio acknowledged it had been breached and 90 videos leaked from early game development builds were found, a boon that helped inform the security protocols the company has implemented since then — and which apparently still didn't get the job done, as Bloomberg reports.
The release timeline is unaffected, For Now
Rockstar hasn't said anything about a delay of the game, though. Grand Theft Auto VI, which takes place in a fictionalized version of Miami, is still on an October 19 release date. The leaked footage is a lot but the extended exposure of it has not yet offered anything major in terms of story points, and has mainly hurt the marketing rollout in the long term, analysts note.
Cyberleek reportedly said: "Publishers should beware"
But as Microsoft and Discord await a response by early September, the next few weeks will be telling whether the legal action will be able to contain a leak that has already proved to be more than Rockstar's takedown could manage.
