Things We Saw Today: Rockstar Games Makes Statement About Rumored ‘GTA VI’ Leaks

Between Grand Theft Auto V releasing almost exactly nine years ago, and the very profitable (via micro-transactions) active chaos space that is GTA Online, many people are very skeptical that another GTA game is on the horizon. That was the case until this past weekend, when tons of what appeared to be leaks showing testing gameplay, art, and more appeared online. It was all rumors until the following Monday, when the official Rockstar Games’ (GTA’s developer) channels released a message regarding the rumors.

What’s not surprising is the fact that this was real, but that this supposedly came from a breach of Rockstar. Here they outline that this breach will not affect the play and safety of the game. Despite the directness of the statement, there are still a lot of questions, as rumors of extortion by hackers is now making the rounds online. The Rockstar Games team also expressed frustration that this was an unfinished product being shown. While Rockstar is a big company, there are thousands of artists between the sound, visual, programming, and many other sides of their games. No artist wants a half-finished project floating around online without consent.

The upvote/like/comment ratio, combined with the fact that so many of the quote tweets show hostility towards the leaks, shows that support for Rockstar Games is strong. People may have their issues with lack of updates and attention to widely played recent games (ahem, Red Dead Redemption 2), but most recognize that Rockstar takes its time with base game development to make sure it’s complete to high standards. Some of this respect was lost until the announcement when a loud minority of people were making jokes that it looked bad or like a Watch Dogs rip-off. But even those just seemed to be trolls and not coming from any actual concern, especially since it was obviously a development code.

(via Rockstar Games, featured image: Rockstar Games & (edited by) Alyssa Shotwell)

Here are some other bits of news out there:

• A screen adaption of On The Come Up (from The Hate U Give author Angie Thomas) releases the first official trailer and official lyric trailer. (via Paramount)
• Despite 400+ deaths per day just in the U.S. alone and the majority of doctors saying otherwise, President Joe Biden declares (in his opinion) that the Covid-19 pandemic is over. (via NPR)
• One of Hollywood’s favorite alleged pedophiles, Woody Allen, clarifies his statement about retiring, and spoiler alert it’s not great news. (via Variety)
• Jessie Gender breaks down how misinformation about trans people unfolds online, leading to national attention and real-world violence. (via YouTube)

What did you see online today, Mary Suevians?

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