Rockstar has, after a week of silence, finally released a statement regarding the multiple leaks of footage that have appeared ahead of tomorrow’s Netflix reveal. The company called the videos “heartbreaking for our team,” as well as apologizing for how long its taken for official information on the game to appear.
Posted to the company’s Instagram, Rockstar finally broke its bizarre social media silence since the run of 15 clips of footage began. “We know that many of you have been waiting to hear from us regarding the events of the past week,” the missive begins. “It would be an understatement to say that having videos of Grand Theft Auto VI gameplay leak this way has been heartbreaking for our team, and this is obviously not how we intended for you to see the game after all this time.”
This then, somewhat uncharacteristically, followed by an apology. “We are very sorry that everything has taken as long as it has—from getting the game finished (nearly there!) to sharing more details and official gameplay, and providing the community with everything you want to know.”
It’s a fascinating reaction for a developer usually so ostentatiously silent, and so methodical about the timing and paucity of its promotional materials. This comment reads like an acknowledgement that the unofficial leaks have been providing a service that GTA fans consider Rockstar to have failed to deliver. And yeah, I’d agree.
Rockstar continues with some fairly boilerplate comments regarding tomorrow’s official reveal on Netflix, which it’s “excited for everyone to see” and claims “we know we need to exceed your expectations.” The statement then adds,
While it is unfortunate that the intended game experience may now be impacted by some spoilers, we hope that everyone will wait a bit longer to experience the game for themselves on November 19.
This is, again, a peculiar phrasing. Unless GTA 6 featuring a nudist colony was thought to be a major plot point, it’s hard to identify anything one could consider a spoiler in the pretty generic settings for all the leaked footage. None reveals storyline or missions, and it’s hard to see how the “intended game experience” is affected. But more odd is the suggestion that there’s any other choice but to “wait a bit longer,” unless Rockstar thinks the alleged code played by Cyberleek may be about to go wild?
Still, it’s hard, at this point, to see how these leaks can have been detrimental to a game that’s inevitably going to become the biggest selling, most profitable, of all time.