So... Lets talk a bit about the Rockstar/GTA6 intrusion/leak...

[Ohio Joe]

So, a network intrusion at Rockstar caused the leak of 90 videos of GTA6:

Link to tweet

A few things about it... First up, what is being downplayed greatly is that whoever broke in was also very publicly trying to extort Rockstar, claiming they also had taken source code. Early reports coming from 'unnamed sources' within Rockstar verified this to be true but that it was an early build. The 'hacker' has no gone into hiding... Erasing their Telegram account as well as posts they made showing off the videos and demanding payment for the source code see the end of the article here:

https://www.axios.com/2022/09/19/rockstar-games-grand-theft-auto-vi-6-leak

Another thing is, most, if not all of the footage has already been taken down but I did watch some of it yesterday. I skimmed through about 10 of the 90 leaked videos... It was not the game content that was what surprised me... It appeared to be videos of a developer debugging or fine tuning the game... And THAT is what absolutely shocked me... Some dev was recording themself doing their work, apparently with Rockstar's knowledge and approval because the many videos were stored on their servers... Crazy stuff.

Going back to the source code being stolen... Their biggest worry from that is going to be if it has current code for their in game economy. Rockstar (and many other companies... Blizzard, looking at you) are raking in the cask by selling in game currency for real life money so that players can buy in game items... Or sometimes even to pay to win (again, Blizzard). They are making serious, serious money from this... Far more than from selling the game itself. Even more than the monthly subscription service scam they have going with MMO's. They won't much care about any pirate copy of the game going up or story/feature leaks... That is peanuts... Their real worry is any threat to their money machine in game economy.

I bet there are all sorts of internal investigations/security investigations going on at Rockstar today and I expect heads will roll over this. Crazy, crazy stuff.

[pecosbob]

1. Shark cards vs. free money drops