Two clips that appear to show Grand Theft Auto 6 gameplay leaked: The wider industry impact

Image via Rockstar Games

GTA 6 release date holds at November 19, Netflix Extended Look lands August 27

Two clips that appear to show Grand Theft Auto 6 gameplay leaked online on August 18, along with an image of the game’s full map. This is the third time GTA 6 has shown up early, after more than 90 development videos leaked in 2022 and the debut trailer surfaced a day ahead of schedule in December 2023. Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look premieres on Netflix on August 27 at 12pm PT, and moves to YouTube six hours later. The game launches on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 19.

Neither the publisher nor parent company Take-Two has confirmed the footage is real, but the DMCA takedown notices going out to everyone reposting it have answered that question fairly well on their own. Rockstar confirmed in April that company information was accessed in a third-party breach, though it said players were unaffected. Rockstar Games has spent the hours since trying to scrub them off social media. Some caution is warranted. Nobody knows how old the build is, and the clips were captured with HDR on, so they look washed out on a standard screen. Get the latest technology news and updates. Download the TOI App.

GTA 6 shipping its physical edition as a code in a box rather than a disc looks like the trigger. That is Red Dead Redemption 2 territory, and it suggests mini-games feed straight into character traits. Two wanted stars light up next, with four unlit stars beside them, so the six-star ceiling is back after sitting out GTA 5. Back at the vehicle, prompts for Loadout and Storage 0/4 appear, followed by the car’s name, a fuel gauge and an engine meter. Lummox has not appeared in any GTA 6 material before now. GTA 5 never allowed that.

The material is watermarked with links to a group calling itself CyberLeek, which says it leaked the game to protest the industry’s slide towards digital-only ownership. Its complaints cover digital pre-orders, single-player DLC it calls fake, and publishers switching off games people already paid for. The group ended its manifesto by telling publishers to “behave, or be the next target. ” The first clip is the quiet one. Jason steps off the balcony of the waterfront house from the second trailer, walks past a jetski, and shoots hoops in the driveway. Scoring works on a timing system where you press a button as two rings overlap, and a made shot bumps a Focus stat by two per cent. The second clip has the detail. Jason clips a Scoop delivery truck on the highway, the driver climbs out swinging, and a stamina bar drains through the fight. Jason takes the man’s wrench and beats him to death with it, emptying the bar and vignetting the edges of the screen. A devil icon with a minus sign follows, and it only appears once the driver is already down, which points to a karma system that judges you for the finishing blows rather than the brawl itself. Icons below track what the police know about you: your clothing, your face, your car. The map is a squashed, redrawn south Florida. Vice City sits on the east coast, green space fills the west and north, and a chain of islands runs south where the Keys should be. Five counties are labelled: Lummox, Leonard, Kelly, Vice Dale and Mariana. Jason’s house is marked on one of the southern islands, small race tracks are scattered across the state, and a second airport sits at the end of the island chain. The map also shows a car icon marked J while the player arrow floats over water, meaning you can see where the other protagonist is without switching to them.