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Grand Theft Auto is a popular video game series created by Rockstar Games and is known for producing other video game series such as: Bully, Red Dead Redemption, Manhunt, Max Payne, L.A. Noire, and the Midnight Club series. Grand Theft Auto has been considered one of Rockstar Games’ greatest successes. GTA contains sixteen games, including two expansion packs for the original and GTA IV and includes a multiplayer mode as well. There are currently sixteen games in the series so far.

Grand Theft Auto has been subject to many controversies due to the graphic and illicit elements featured in the game. Outside of the U.S. GTA has been censored in Japan and banned in countries such as Argentina, Greece, Thailand, and most of the Middle East. Regardless, it has received high ratings from players, according to Statista, GTA has shipped 380,000,000 units worldwide as of August 2022, and the most recent installment, GTA V, has sold 17,000,000 units since its release in September 2013.

When it happened, more than 90 clips of leaked footage were posted to the GTAForums website by a user named ‘teapotuberhacker,’ who claimed he accessed GTA V and VI’s source codes by hacking into Rockstar’s internal company slack.  Rockstar Games consequently issued immediate takedowns of the footage on YouTube and Twitter, confirming that a third party accessed and downloaded the material. 

According to Rockstar Games’ Twitter: “We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto. At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to [our developing games long-term]. We are extremely disappointed to [have our materials leaked with everyone]. Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto will continue as planned and we remain as committed [to delivering an experience with our players that truly exceeds their expectations]. We will update everyone again [when it is ready]. We [thank] everyone for their ongoing support through this situation.”

The hacker held the source codes hostage, willing to exchange them for Cryptocurrency. The hacker was linked to the Uber hacking case, stealing sensitive information from users. The hacker is now liable to legal action taken against him in court, it is suspected that he may be a teenager. Rockstar Games has given a cold shoulder toward what he had done.

According to The Guardian, the leak revealed a new female protagonist featured in the game for the first time. Despite the game being in early development, the content leaked was sleek and pleasing to the audience, however, this left many fans and Rockstar themselves feeling upset. On the Rockstar Games website, Rockstar allowed players to pre-order their games initially at first, so players could play it on the date of the official release.

Grand Theft Auto VI has now been considered to have been one of the most greatest confidential data breaches in gaming history. As of right now, the game has yet to be released.