A group calling itself Cyberleek began circulating alleged GTA VI gameplay footage and map images on August 18, nine days ahead of Rockstar’s own planned reveal. The material reportedly includes protagonist Jason at a waterfront home, a driving sequence that ends in a roadside fight, and images claimed to show the complete map of the game’s setting, Leonida. Rockstar has not confirmed the footage is real, but has begun issuing DMCA takedowns against posts sharing it, a response widely read as tacit confirmation.
Cyberleek says the leak is a protest, not a hack for profit. The group’s stated grievance: Take-Two’s decision to sell GTA VI only through digital pre-orders rather than offering a physical release. One post attributed to the group read, in part: “No consumer shall pay for a game through digital storefronts.” Whether that framing holds up, the leak’s timing was deliberate. Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look premieres on Netflix August 27, the streamer’s first-ever video game reveal event, before also airing on Rockstar’s YouTube channel and website six hours later. Netflix VP of nonfiction series Brandon Riegg called the partnership a chance to debut new GTA footage “with Netflix members first.”
This isn’t new territory for GTA VI. The game has now leaked ahead of a planned reveal three separate times. In September 2022, hacker Arion Kurtaj breached a Rockstar Slack channel and posted more than 90 minutes of early development footage, one of the largest leaks in games industry history. In December 2023, the game’s first official trailer leaked online roughly 15 hours before its scheduled release, forcing Rockstar to publish it early rather than let the leaked copy spread unchecked. Insiders say some of this month’s leaked clips may be over a year old, based on the game version and a song used in the footage, so what’s circulating now may not match what Rockstar shows at the Netflix event.
The leak lands against a backdrop of real delays and real controversy. Take-Two confirmed GTA VI’s development back in February 2022, though reporting suggests the concept dates to 2014. The first trailer set a 2025 launch window; Rockstar has since pushed the release twice, most recently to November 19, 2026, roughly 18 months behind the original internal target, according to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick. The most recent delay arrived days after Rockstar fired 31 UK staffers, a move the UK’s Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain called union-busting and Rockstar has denied was connected to the delay. Rockstar’s pattern of pushing release dates in the name of polish isn’t new either: both GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 shipped later than their original announced windows.
Community trackers have already catalogued roughly 163 named vehicles from official trailers and screenshots, working toward an estimated 200-plus total, and fan-built map projects using leak data put Leonida at roughly two to two-and-a-half times the size of GTA V’s map, though none of that is officially confirmed.
With the most anticipated game in years already carrying two delays and a history of leaks, does another pre-reveal leak actually cost Rockstar anything, or does the resulting attention just build more heat for August 27?
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