Dozens of authentic, pre-release videos from GTA VI – featuring heists, guns and open-world driving – were posted on an online message board over the weekend, media reported.
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The hacker also posted a message to “negotiate a deal” and asked Rockstar Games or parent company Take-Two to contact them, according to the Bloomberg report.
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Rockstar Games, a video game studio owned by Take-Two, is the creator of Grand Theft Auto, one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. Take-Two Interactive did not respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours. The highly anticipated GTA VI is estimated to generate $3.5 billion in bookings at launch and an average of $2 billion annually thereafter, according to Bank of America. The launch could provide a much-needed boost to the US gaming company, which forecast weak annual sales in August, in a sign that a thin slate of major releases and the easing of COVID-19 restrictions have dampened the industry’s boom in the season of the pandemic. The gaming industry, considered by some analysts to be “recession-proof,” has begun to see some weakness as inflation-hit consumers cut back on entertainment spending. (Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
