On September 17, a user named teapotuberhacker went to a Grand Theft Auto forum with what they claim are 90 clips from Rockstar Games’ supposed next big hit, Grand Theft Auto VI. “[It’s] maybe soon I will leak more data, GTA Source code 5 and 6 and content, GTA 6 test builds,” they wrote.
The hack is real. The next day, Rockstar confirmed that it had “a network breach in which a third party illegally downloaded confidential information from our systems.” That includes early footage from its upcoming game, leaving parent company Take-Two scrambling to remove videos posted on platforms like YouTube and Twitter as quickly as possible. (Rockstar did not respond to a request for comment.)
Grand Theft Autoof leakage is one of, if not the, the biggest leak occurred in the game industry. The extent to which hackers manage to steal, from video to, potentially, GTA DRAW and GTA VI the source code — the building blocks that allow developers to create their games in a unique way — is amazing. However, despite the massive breach, Rockstar Games is not alone. This week, a Reddit user posted 43 minutes of beta footage from Blizzard coming soon Diablo IV. Earlier this month, news of Ubisoft’s next move Assassin’s Creed, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, was launched online ahead of the company’s flashy announcement; a Youtuber was go forward to confess responsibility for the leak after he broke an embargo. In the past, Hackers have targeted Featured developers like Naughty Dog, post unreleased information about Our Last Part II.
In the immediate aftermath of GTA VI Leak, Take-Two’s discount stocks and the company investors guarantee it has “taken steps to isolate and prevent this issue.” But the real impact may not be felt for a while. Content leaks are a development nightmare. WIRED game makers have described this as a demoralizing, even demoralizing incident. Longtime creative director Alex Hutchinson, whose projects include Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 4. “And you’re getting tons of negative comments about it, which you can’t defend because then you’re just providing oxygen for a bad moment.” And the stimulant effects could be even worse.
Players criticized Grand Theft Auto VIleaked build and what the game—still in progress—looks like. Much of this is due to a misunderstanding of how development works and how the games will appear when they are over. Consider Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. On Twitter, Naughty Dog developer Kurt Margenau posted an early rendering of a car chase featuring the hero Nathan Drake driving a jeep that looks like a 3D graph, the road is neatly squared, past buildings could be made of Children’s building blocks. “Its goal is to present the gaming experience as closely as possible,” he tweeted. “Then repeat.” The video ends with a look at the final version, a glossy city filled with color.
The developers say that the leaks have distorted the public perception of the game, giving the impression to players that the version they purchased will turn out to be… trash. “If you’ve seen a Marvel movie with a green screen and no special effects, you’ll have a completely fuzzy impression of the final quality, and if you’ve never seen the final movie this will is your permanent impression,” says Hutchinson.
These effects go more than deep into the skin. It can create barriers between developers and their communities, and increase security and secrecy around projects. Those consequences go even further, sometimes creating confidence gaps for components that are believed to be the source of leaks. In some cases, it can lead to excessive brittleness. Former Activision Blizzard developer Jessica Gonzalez said: “Leaks often mean delays,” said Jessica Gonzalez, developer at Activision Blizzard, if companies delay resources for an investigation. and prevent more leaks. (Rockstar said it doesn’t currently expect “any lasting effect on the development of our ongoing projects.”)
If a hacker really has GTA VI In source code, Rockstar’s woes could get even worse — because, Gonzalez notes, that code “shows how we write games.” Another developer with more than 20 years of experience working on AAA titles, who requested anonymity to speak freely, told WIRED that “it’s bad but it’s also quite complicated.” Here, he says, the leakers really do harm. “The source code is very flexible,” he says, “so it’s a snapshot of a given place and time that isn’t really set up to navigate without much time and effort, but can still do great damage to the team if they have proprietary or licensed code in it. “
In the game, developers are often described as being too secretive about their work, and there are often calls for them to share more about their process to promote understanding of development and clarity. demonstrate the work required to create a game. Some developers, like the people behind Quake, choose to release the source code for people to play around and create their own features. But there’s a difference between creators choosing to release their code and having it stolen.
“Leaks, like anything, make companies less likely to get involved, even if the leak has nothing to do with the community at large,” said developer AAA. AAA said. “If your house gets robbed, you start putting in locks and bars and cameras and no longer trust your neighbors, and that sucks for everyone.”
