Things were getting a little too quiet around here, I guess, because someone’s leaked more footage of Grand Theft Auto 6 ahead of launch. And it looks like the culprits may have done it as a form of protest against digital pre-orders.
Just now, several new video clips of what really does look like actual GTA 6 footage leaked online and began to circulate rapidly. The clips appear to be coming from a website called Cyberleek, and include footage of driving, Jason playing basketball, and what could be the game’s entire map. It’s a pretty brutal leak, especially just days before the big Netflix-hosted gameplay reveal.
But apart from the gameplay itself, what’s interesting about this is the hacker group itself, and what it claims to represent. The Cyberleek website contains a lengthy manifesto railing against the rise of “monetization schemes” in video games, such as live-service titles, the selling of digital licenses to games instead of actual ownership, locked content on discs under the guise of DLC, and games being shut down entirely. “Every year anti-consumerism tightens its grip, and every year gamers get less for what they pay,” it reads.
Cyberleek claims it’s raising funds for a “secret project” that it won’t disclose, and then lists three “commandments” it expects video game publishers to adhere to. It claims that if a publisher breaks one, it will “target” them, and “will not stop until they issue a public statement and apology with a concrete commitment to be better. Words are not enough; restitution is mandatory.”
It’s from those commandments that we can maybe piece together why Cyberleek appears to have targeted GTA 6 specifically. One of the commandments does not appear to apply to the game, at least not yet or not publicly. That’s number three, which calls out a need for “offline fallback state[s]” for single-player content in games so that single-player games cannot become unplayable when servers are shut off. We don’t know one way or the other how this impacts GTA 6, but suffice to say it doesn’t appear to be in any danger of having its single-player campaign shut down anytime soon.
Commandment 2 is a prohibition against “fake single-player DLC,” or including content in a game at launch that then requires an additional purchase to unlock. This could be an issue Cyberleek has taken with GTA 6 specifically, though it’s a bit murky. GTA 6 launches with tons of extra vehicles, cosmetics, a salon, and other bits and bobs locked behind the game’s “Ultimate Edition,” which costs $20 more than the regular one. “When someone pays USD 70+ for a game, they bought the data,” Cyberleek writes. “All of it. Selling them a file that flips locked = true to locked = false for a single-player mission, character, weapon, or story chapter is charging them twice for the same product.” If this is in fact Cyberleek’s issue, they’re going to have a hell of a time going after everyone who does this.
But really, Commandment 1 is the most easy accusation to point at GTA 6, as it’s a statement against digital pre-orders.
No consumer shall pay for a game through digital storefronts before release and independent review. Physical preorders for tangible media remain permitted.
Preorders were not created for gamers. They were created because physical discs had manufacturing limits. In digital distribution, there is no inventory. There is no stock shortage. A digital copy cannot sell out. Yet publishers kept the preorder system and stripped away its only consumer benefit. Now gamers pay early and receive nothing in return except a countdown timer and a cosmetic skin.
If publishers want revenue before launch, they can press discs. Print boxes. Put them on shelves. Earn that money through physical production.
And that’s literally what GTA 6 is doing: taking digital pre-orders. There’s no physical edition of the game at launch, so no possibility for physical ones. It’s also possible it’s a combination of both Commandment 1 and 2 that’s pissing off Cyberleek, especially given the recent news that the $100 digital-only ultimate edition of GTA 6 is being pre-ordered far, far more than the regular $80 version.
Beyond any of that, Cyberleek appears to have targeted Rockstar explicitly due to its high profile. “If CYBERLEEK can reach Rockstar, no one is safe. This is a message to all big corpo: behave, or be the next target.” Its manifesto concludes:
“CYBERLEEK will continue to disrupt their operations until they issue a public statement and apology with a concrete commitment to fix the harm they caused. No private negotiations. No quiet settlements. The public sees it, or the ‘leeks’ do not stop.”
Given Rockstar’s responses to multiple past leaks, it seems unlikely the company will capitulate its entire business plan because some blurry clips got out. Kotaku has reached out to Rockstar for comment.