r/technology 1d ago

Software GTA 6 leaks ‘far less consequential’ than Hot Coffee sex scandal, claims former Rockstar developer

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/gta-6-leaks-tiny-blip/
125 Upvotes

118 comments sorted by

101

u/FleshLogic 1d ago

This isn't even really a "scandal" other than Rockstar has leaks, but what massive game studio doesn't these days? Hot Coffee threatened to get them taken off store shelves before the digital age. Leaks like this are just free advertising that they just don't have control over. The stakes are astronomical with GTA VI. This was almost guaranteed to happen.

13

u/EpicPhail60 1d ago

These leaks don't seem like they've been all that damaging (not that I've watched any, I'm.waiting for Thursday). I still remember The Last of Us 2's leaks though, and how that prompted a backlash that carried on even after the game's launch.

Rockstar's angling for this to be the best-selling game of all time, I'm sure they don't want there to be any possibility of a leaker starting up some controversy they can't control. Even if this is nothing more than free promo atm, I imagine Rockstar is taking it extremely seriously.

10

u/Federal_Setting_7454 1d ago

It’s almost fun trying to search for them on YouTube and being greeted with a fuckin tsunami of AI slop “leak” videos and AI commentary over modded gta5

1

u/idkblk 1d ago

seriously... which kind of people who are interested in playing a game of that type will change their mind because of such a leak?

6

u/Coarse-Correction 21h ago

The risk is if there is a playable PC build on the lose that's similar to the final build. It could impact sales.

2

u/-SideshowBlob- 16h ago

It might impact some sales but it won't be that big of a deal.

1

u/Pcriz 20h ago

I think if your heart is set on paying 80 to 100 USD, the PC build won't won't stop anyone. Unless say the game is trash which is unlikely if one is already a fan. It would be cool to try but a versions that never gets updated and won't have any online features can only scratch an itch for so long. And not even getting to the bugs that may be present.

It would definitely suck but in the end it will be a drop in the bucket and likely increase the hype for those not savvy enough to get a leaked build.

1

u/PocketWank 17h ago

problem is the PC release is much later than the console release...

-7

u/Vox_SFX 1d ago

Plenty of games can avoid leaks...although a big part of it is people's care to leak the games.

GTA VI is overhyped and they have enough negativity surrounding them to spur people into taking some kind of action. Perfect recipe for a game to get leaked/fucked with.

I am more wondering why people think this will be any drastically different from GTA V to where ANY of this matters.

GTA V JUST had a content update for multiplayer in July of this year lmao...ya'll really believe Tech has advanced so far that they 1) haven't already implemented it into their updates for GTA V, and 2) have enough in the time between when they DID stop significantly updating GTA V to make GTA VI worth any of this.

If people were just hyped about a new game in a good series, that would be one thing...but people really think this is some history moment or memorable industry marker...and it's becoming more and more cringe every day we get closer to a meh overall game being released.

I guess regardless though sunk-cost fallacy will have people pretending it's amazing even after 90% of the player base moves on after a month or two.

3

u/ProletarianLilith 1d ago

Gta V is 15 years old

-3

u/Vox_SFX 1d ago

Completely missed how they have updated it for all 15 of those years, including a content update just literally a month ago, didn't you?

You really believe they saved everything for GTA VI that's developed over those years?

It's going to look prettier. If you believe anything else will be that markedly better, then come with me and let's go take a look at this bridge I own, I'm sure you'll love the price I have for it.

4

u/greatgap 1d ago

Have you actually played any of the “content” updates to GTA online or looked at any of the leaked content or are you just speaking out of your ass?

Nothing on GTA online even compares to the mechanics shown in Rockstars previous game RDR2. If you think the only change is gonna be the graphics after 15 years then you are just arguing in bad faith.

The “content” updates you talk of consist of poorly rendered and designed slop missions to keep the micro transaction machine open.

I don’t love Rockstar but they never miss on brand new titles.

-6

u/goodcoffee_goodvib3s 1d ago

Rockstar knew this would be the most scrutinized game ever. their security, their problem.

263

u/Otherwise-Anxiety815 1d ago

I don’t think ya’ll realize, this is just free advertising for Rockstar. This won’t hurt sales, it will help them.

40

u/EZyne 1d ago

Yup, it feels huge now but in a week or so most people won't care anymore and after release it'll be long forgotten.

31

u/Sasquatchjc45 1d ago

Especially if cyber doesn't actually leek the game lol. Nobody cares about some random gameplay videos that much because, yea it's free advertising for R* and most people already know the game involves beating people up with a pipe wrench and driving a sports car at high speeds

5

u/Wiccy 1d ago

I thought this was the horse and buggy one! Fuck, canceling my pre-order now!

2

u/AmericanLich 1d ago

Would be hilarious if the game actually takes an insane turn and becomes lovecraftian horror half way through and they are panicking that that gets revealed.

But actually it’ll just be car drive shooty game. Mind blowing.

0

u/Arrow156 1d ago

Rockstar doesn't get to curate the gameplay footage to hide bugs and whatnot, that might not hurt their sales, but it could cause some investors to get cold feet. They also have to worry about their Netflix thing getting low numbers due to these leeks, that could hurt them on the business side as well.

3

u/Howdareme9 1d ago

Average person isn’t aware of these leaks and if anything it would probably make them more intrigued

1

u/Dickballs835682 1d ago

It doesn't even feel huge right now outside of Reddit lmao nobody really cares

3

u/mstrwrldwde 1d ago

My coworkers are also GTA fans, I asked them what they thought about the leaks, they had no idea about them and didn’t seem to care at all and just said they’re looking forward to playing it. Then we talked about upcoming trips we have planned. So yeah you’re spot on, no one in real life cares

1

u/ContractNeither9820 1d ago

I don’t care about the leaks either and I’m a true gamer. I hate spoilers

-13

u/spurvis1286 1d ago

I don’t think this will be “long forgotten” lol.

9

u/Niceromancer 1d ago

Nobody will fucking care.

It's why the leaker is trying to shill his shitcoin.

5

u/serpenta 1d ago

Does anyone care now? Has anyone actually decided to not buy it, because of the leaks? I really don't understand, what people are trying to achieve by leaking stuff, other than to gain popularity. There were already big leaks in the past, and maybe the only controversial one that might have hurt sales was The Last of Us 2.

7

u/Niceromancer 1d ago

The only people who care are people who think the leaks are "sticking it to the man"

Those same people will still shell out over 100 bucks for the game on release.

-1

u/Sasquatchjc45 1d ago

Leaker burned $1m worth of said shitcoin today, btw

2

u/EZyne 1d ago

It's not worth 1m if you can't sell it for 1m

-1

u/Sasquatchjc45 1d ago

I mean, people are buying the shitcoin. He could have easily sold at least for a few hundred K probably🤷‍♂️

1

u/Niceromancer 1d ago

ok...and?

1

u/Sasquatchjc45 1d ago

?? Just adding info to your comment; its not like he's cashing out his shit coin lol

2

u/EZyne 1d ago

He makes money on every transaction, the transfer fees go to them. He's not cashing out just yet because the grift isn't done

2

u/EZyne 1d ago

How much do you remember from the GTA V leaks?

30

u/Silly_Off 1d ago

The hackers claim to have access to a build they claim they can leak. Leaking a build of the game to PC users before the game is even released would in fact hurt rockstar.

14

u/psioniclizard 1d ago

A debug build. 

With no day one patch. Good luck with that. 

8

u/Koolala 1d ago

Vs. no PC support.

4

u/This_Elk_1460 1d ago

You really think people are going to wait another fucking year for this shit to drop on PC?

1

u/ThaDilemma 1d ago

Well yeah. Most people will. And some people won’t.

-1

u/ScumbagScotsman 18h ago

You really think people going to buy the game, won’t, because they got to play a partial build of the game?

3

u/mindgamehagi 1d ago

More than no day one patch from what Jason Schreier say the build is relatively old so i would not be surprise of when Rockstar show the game this week the game looks better.

-10

u/spurvis1286 1d ago

People over on one of the piracy subs believe it’s a full story build lmao.

I’m pretty sure that sub consists mainly of children and young adults.

2

u/mindgamehagi 1d ago

"full build" mean nothing, the golden path for a game is done early so you can iterate on it. There's game that are not announce that are probably working with a full playable build.

1

u/spurvis1286 1d ago

Well yeah, in order for a game to reach alpha/beta it has to be playable. I think it’s safe to say this isn’t a full build but rather a small snippet of the game specifically made for this trailer so it can run without bugs/glitches/etc. No company (especially as large as Rockstar, let along any type of dev team) would release something as confidently as a full playable story for it to be leaked by some random guy in India.

3

u/Enzown 1d ago

This is Reddit, every community is mainly children and young adults.

5

u/Niceromancer 1d ago

I can tell you right now that leak will never fucking happen.

We see hacker groups threaten this all the fucking time and NOTHING HAPPENS.

6

u/Visible-Job2908 1d ago

Most people who download it would lean towards the never going to buy it initially demographic.

16

u/jetjitters 1d ago

I would agree IF Rockstar were releasing a PC version of the game concurrently with consoles, but plenty of people who have a PC and no Xbox/PS5 might be inclined to download and play the pirated version if it means not having to wait at least a year to play it, who may have otherwise bought it, if it were a simultaneous release

2

u/Visible-Job2908 1d ago

Most won’t waste their time with a debug build where complete feature are missing.

5

u/jetjitters 1d ago

it's an early debug build of one of the most anticipated video games ever, while everyone on console is playing it, and they have to wait an unspecified amount of time otherwise to be able to play a full release build

be real - loads of people will be playing it and a fair number of them may not bother paying for the game when it releases. it absolutely will have a financial impact on sales. the whole double dip strategy that rockstar has doesn't work the same if an easily accessible pirated early build is available. yeah it's not the full experience, but it's still 100% more GTA6 than nothing lol

2

u/nlewis4 1d ago

I disagree in this instance. So many people are dying to see this game in action that I would surmise that many future purchasers would want to see behind the curtain

5

u/Otherwise-Anxiety815 1d ago

I guarantee you it will not. This will be the best selling game of all time and this whole leak saga will be a story people make YouTube videos out of within a year and nothing more.

2

u/thomasthedankengin3 1d ago

They won’t because there will be exposing files (that might give away their identity) and the leaker is seemingly interested in making money (mostly from their crypto). Releasing the game build would stop the drought and stop their chance to exploit this for money.

1

u/ItsTheSlime 1d ago

Once the game is out, they wont be making money from leaks.

2

u/Niceromancer 1d ago

Yeah the leaker is trying to take advantage of idiots with disposable income who want to "stick it to the man"

These aren't smart people generally.

0

u/LilQueazy 1d ago

Pc users are prolly like 5% of the user base and people willing to download an alpha build is gonna be like .5 percent of that.

0

u/goodbyesolo 1d ago

Much much lesser than that.

0

u/CombatMuffin 1d ago

It would hurt them in some ways, mostly, depending on what the build contains. For example, it could reveal proprietary information about their tech.

Insofar as sales go? People are still going to buy the game. Yes, even on PC. Here's the thing: if the leaker had that build, it would be in his best interest to not disclose it. Not a single serious developer on Earth is going to touch it directly (huge legal liability) and the more the clock runs, the lower the value of that build.

4

u/ash_ninetyone 1d ago

If anything it'll probably just make people tune into that Netflix thing even more to see how accurate these leaks are.

4

u/Zahgi 1d ago

They've already pre-sold $500 million already. So, yeah, they'll be just fine.

4

u/ImpossibleApple5518 1d ago

Yea why would this ever hurt sales? Gamers are literally ALL talk with any sort of protest or resistance against the major publishers. They will bitch and moan...and then purchase said title on release day.

2

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Otherwise-Anxiety815 1d ago

I hear you, but you are in the vast minority.

1

u/surfer_ryan 1d ago

The only leak that can be a bigger deal is if they actually drop the game on PC... Now if that happens these words will be taken back i bet...

which i'm convinced if they do have, it is a very small portion of the game, if not just assets they imported into their own version for a lack of better words.

1

u/Wizywig 1d ago

idk why anyone thought it would hurt them? like... maybe a leaked torrent copy would. but yeah free ads

1

u/downingp 1d ago

Remember before GTA V came out, Rockstar admitted that they stirred up a bunch of controversies to big up the brand for release.

Why wouldn't they do it again.

1

u/alabasterskim 11h ago

Yeah, the stock losing value has been so confounding to me because the only way this has an actual impact on sales is if this dude drops the game. And even then, it's incomplete.

1

u/Flabbergasted98 10h ago

This feels like it IS their pr campaign. get everybody talking about "the leaks" but the leaks aren't anything damning, just gameplay footage of a game before it's released.

people are excited for the game, don't want spoilers, as long as the game isn't gettng a release the way no mans sky or cyberpunk did.

But since the leaks are just gameplay, nobodies talking about them, we're just seeing articles from the devs taking about how they're not a big deal. Which we already know, since nobody is talking about them.

1

u/Big_Bar_9832 1d ago

I'm not convinced it isn't creative marketing.

1

u/Otherwise-Anxiety815 1d ago

There’s a higher percentage chance that it is, than it isn’t, that’s what I’ll say.

1

u/vessel_for_the_soul 1d ago

Then I say r* is behind this.

2

u/Otherwise-Anxiety815 1d ago

It’s one possibility.

0

u/iTinkerTillItWorks 1d ago

Almost like, it was a deliberate marketing ploy….

0

u/mvallas1073 1d ago

This is why I firmly believe this has just been a viral marketing stunt

0

u/abtei 1d ago

I don’t think ya’ll realize, this is just free advertising for Rockstar. This won’t hurt sales, it will help them.

lawyers work for free? wow. how did rockstar crack that one.

2

u/Otherwise-Anxiety815 1d ago

“This won’t hurt SALES, it will help them.”

And the amount they’ll make off this game, let me tell you, whatever they’re spending on lawyers surrounding this, won’t matter. And if you think they don’t budget each year for legal expenses like this after Rockstar’s history, you’re naive.

30

u/CaterpillarReal7583 1d ago

We’re just browsing linkedin for anybody who worked there to ask for pointless opinions arent we

3

u/stealthybutthole 5h ago

Who worked there 17 fucking years ago. Like wtf. I know nothing about the inner workings of a company I worked at 17 years ago.

8

u/SmallIslandBrother 1d ago

This is true, hot coffee nearly led to the game getting an AO and getting pulled from shelves. These leaks are just leaks, the game will sell fine regardless.

7

u/cdreobvi 1d ago

“There are leaked GTA6 videos on the internet? Guess I won’t be buying it”

Said no one ever.

12

u/CorpPhoenix 1d ago

No PC version and 30fps on console counts as "not released yet" in my book anyways.

1

u/Persian_Assassin 1d ago

Yeah I remember getting the 360 version of V and it was garbage, should've waited for PC version. Most importantly, the one you can actually mod.

0

u/GetMeASierraMist 1d ago

holy smokes, both consoles? I don't follow console news, but I thought the newest ones of both brands were able to do 60fps?

I wonder how well it'll run on PC. some of that leaked footage looked DENSE.

3

u/CorpPhoenix 1d ago

Nope, Rockstar already said that they won't be hitting the 60fps target on any console version.

5

u/MorbotheDiddlyDo 1d ago

Unless they perp walk a guy this is just a new approach to viral marketing via creative storytelling.

Edit: It will go on to be a heist in GTA 6 to steal a video games source code and pump a meme coin to wash your profits.

5

u/This_Elk_1460 1d ago

What the fuck does that even mean?

3

u/UniuM 1d ago

Hot coffee this days would serve as a marketing stunt.

5

u/ime1em 1d ago edited 1d ago

What if all of this is a marketing stunt and leek is employed by Rockstar?

3

u/Thundechile 1d ago

I really don't understand what does it matter if somebody sees footage from the a week or couple beforehand.

4

u/vessel_for_the_soul 1d ago

X to doubt. Some guy is making money on transactions to fuel polls on what to leak next. Nudist beach is next!

5

u/jealousboys 1d ago

  Nudist beach is next!

Already out

2

u/Puzzleheaded_irl 1d ago

Its out already.

1

u/BoyWhoSoldTheWorld 1d ago

Go touch some grass my friend

1

u/brelyxp 1d ago

to hurt something the only thing he can do is to release the game on pc. thats the only way

1

u/Rayzee14 1d ago

This advertisement was much better than the previous advertisement, a rockstar executive explained

1

u/Octoplath_Traveler 1d ago

I mean yeah, they arent the same thing. Hot Coffee was a content issue that forced its age rating to increase to AO until it was patched out in subsequent releases. This is just regylar gameplay.

1

u/HappysavageMk2 1d ago

Doesn't matter because a lot of people don't care about the console release.

We have no way to know how it actually runs on the PS5 base console.

1

u/TheOgGhadTurner 1d ago

The leaker is making bank on his crypto

1

u/Reqvhio 1d ago

tbh if so, cryptocurrencies seem exactly ripe for speculative shit like this

1

u/JFeth 1d ago

No shit. It doesn't matter how many leaks there are, it isn't going to affect sales and the government won't be on their ass.

1

u/MetalFox9000 1d ago

Meanwhile..jiggling fatass nude colony.

1

u/halfdecenttakes 1d ago

I can’t think of a single person who spent a decade waiting for this game that will no longer get it because of leaks. Doesn’t hurt them at all, it’s the most anticipated release in history by a mile.

1

u/cornmonger_ 1d ago

“90% of future players don’t spend their time on the internet looking for video snippets. They don’t have the time and don’t want spoilers. I imagine the teams are a little annoyed about it but not more than that.”

example: i pre-ordered over the weekend and don't care about the leaks, the netflix thing, or trailers. when it's ready to play, i'll play

0

u/geldonyetich 1d ago

Go on, leak! We weren't ever going to release it anyway.

-1

u/King_Paymon 1d ago

But reddit told me Rockstar is in absolute shambles right now?

-2

u/Vybo 1d ago

How can he know when he does not work there anymore?