A new claim from a well-known insider indicates Grand Theft Auto 6 developer Rockstar Games is deliberately spreading false information about its upcoming title. The allegation adds a new dimension to ongoing questions about how Rockstar is trying to prevent another wave of GTA 6 leaks ahead of its next marketing push.
GTA 6 has so far been the subject of several high-profile leaks dating back to 2022, when teenager Arion Kurtaj hacked into Rockstar’s Slack server and obtained early footage of the game. Even the game’s reveal trailer was leaked online in its entirety, prompting the company to release it a full day early.
Every Major City And Location Confirmed To Be In GTA 6
You can safely expect to find these locations in Rockstar Games’ upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6.
Wary of Leaks, GTA 6 Developer Is Reportedly Running a Tight Ship
Rockstar has reportedly tightened its internal operations amid concerns about leaks. That is according to Reece Reilly, known online as Kiwi Talkz, a YouTuber with a long track record of interviewing current and former video game developers. “No one is talking at all about GTA 6,” Reilly wrote in a mid-February 2026 post on X, formerly Twitter, comparing the studio’s current secrecy to “Area 51” because of how tightly it is “locked up.” In a reply to a fan asking whether Rockstar sometimes deliberately spreads misinformation to identify leakers, Reilly described that practice as “100% true.”
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
Rockstar Is Possibly Trying to Weed Out GTA 6 Leakers with Canary Traps
While Reilly did not elaborate, he was likely referring to the so-called “canary trap” technique. The method involves deliberately sharing slightly different versions of the same information with different recipients within an organization to identify the source of a leak. Each person or department receives a unique detail—such as an altered date or phrasing—that appears insignificant on its own. If the information later becomes public, the variation serves as a marker, allowing the organization to trace the leak to a specific individual or group. Because the tactic is designed to be discreet, its use in the gaming industry or elsewhere is difficult to document. However, recent insider reports have suggested that Valve attempted to identify potential Half-Life 3 leakers using canary traps in late 2025.
Canary Traps Are as Effective at Deterring as Identifying Leakers
If taken at face value, Reilly’s claim would suggest that Rockstar employees are aware of the practice being used, considering he is. That highlights a key feature of canary traps: they can serve as an extremely effective deterrent. The mere possibility that such measures are in place may discourage internal leaks. However, the tactic does little to prevent breaches by external actors, who were responsible for the two most significant GTA 6 leaks to date: the pre-alpha build and the game’s first trailer. The latter is widely believed to have originated from a YouTube employee or contractor.
Reilly did not clarify whether Rockstar is actively planting false GTA 6 leaks as of today, saying only that the company generally employs such tactics. Even so, the claim casts doubt on minor leaks that have surfaced recently, particularly those focused on granular details such as radio track listings.
During Take-Two Interactive’s latest quarterly earnings call, CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that GTA 6 was still on track for release on November 19, 2026. The much-anticipated title has been targeting this launch date since November 2025, although some fans have been concerned about whether it would be able to hit it following multiple delays. As with every mainline entry since the series’ shift to 3D, GTA 6 will be a console exclusive at launch. A PC version has not been formally announced yet, but is widely expected to arrive one to two years after the console release.
- Released
-
November 19, 2026
- ESRB
-
Rating Pending – Likely Mature 17+
Source: Dexerto
