News

Former Rockstar Lead Says GTA 6 Leaks Are Mostly a Blip for Future Players

Obbe Vermeij compared the current footage to the Hot Coffee scandal and said an alleged playable build may only run on a development kit.

Mihaela Kicevski3 weeks ago

63 4 minutes read

A woman wearing a red bandana sits inside a car with a city street visible through the windows.

Grand Theft Auto VI has been at the center of a growing leak wave, but former Rockstar Games technical director Obbe Vermeij believes the damage will be limited. In his view, most people who eventually buy the game are not spending their time hunting for short clips online.

The account using the name Cyberleek posted 11 alleged clips across six days, including footage tied to driving and other parts of the game. The person behind the account remains unidentified. Some of the material appeared to suggest access to a playable build, although there is still no confirmation that a complete version was obtained. The leak cycle has also included alleged map details and possible story spoilers.

The leak wave has continued ahead of Rockstar’s August 27, 2026 extended look, which is scheduled to premiere on Netflix at 3 p.m. ET before reaching Rockstar’s YouTube channel and website at 9 p.m. ET. Recent alleged footage has also been covered in the latest GTA VI leak coverage.

Take-Two Interactive has treated the situation much more seriously. Its response has included DMCA takedowns and subpoenas involving Microsoft and Discord, with the company seeking information that could help identify the person behind the leaks, as detailed in the legal response to the alleged footage. Those measures have not stopped additional clips from circulating, while Rockstar has not publicly addressed the latest leak wave.

Vermeij says Rockstar’s crackdown is part of the job

Vermeij offered a more balanced view of Rockstar’s response in a public post. He said Rockstar New York “overreacts a bit at times,” but added that stopping unauthorized leaks is “their job.”

R*NY overreacts a bit at times.
But it is their job to try to stop these kind of leaks.

— Obbe Vermeij (@ObbeVermeij) August 24, 2026

Rockstar introduced tighter security measures after the 2022 Grand Theft Auto VI leak. Journalist Jason Schreier said those measures included a return-to-office mandate for all Rockstar employees. More alleged footage appearing later has renewed attention on how the studio handles internal security and the fallout for its staff.

Vermeij spent nearly 14 years at Rockstar North and worked as technical director during the development of GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas, and GTA 4: The Ballad of Gay Tony, spanning releases from 2001 through 2010. He worked at Rockstar from 1995 to 2009. Vermeij offered a different assessment on X, writing, “Calm down everybody. The leaks are a nothing burger.” He said Rockstar deliberately kept its next open-world game hidden for longer than many publishers do, turning mystery into part of the marketing plan. Because official gameplay footage had not already established what GTA 6 looks like, the leaked clips reveal more than they might have during a typical promotional campaign.

Calm down everybody. The leaks are a nothing burger.

As a marketing strategy R* is trying to keep the game under wraps longer than other publishers. All that has happened is that some footage has escaped. Slightly ahead of the Netflix thing next week.

90% of future players…

— Obbe Vermeij (@ObbeVermeij) August 22, 2026

Vermeij expects the escaped footage to become only “a tiny blip” over the life of the game. He pointed to GTA V as an example, arguing that the next Grand Theft Auto could remain commercially relevant for more than a decade and leave the current controversy as a small early incident.

Vermeij’s main point is simple: “90% of future players don’t spend their time on the internet looking for video snippets.” He added that many of those players do not have the time or desire to seek out spoilers, meaning the online reaction may not reflect the wider audience that Rockstar is targeting.

Vermeij compares the leaks with Hot Coffee

The former developer also compared the situation with Hot Coffee, the hidden sex mini-game that was accidentally left inside Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Players discovered the code in 2005 and activated it through an unofficial modification. The controversy led to an Adults Only re-rating from the ESRB, while retailers pulled the game from shelves until an updated version was available. The discovery also triggered legal pressure and an FTC warning.

A GameSpot estimate put Take-Two’s resulting 2005 revenue loss at $50 million. Take-Two later reached a $20 million class-action settlement in 2009, as detailed by Kotaku.

Vermeij recalled that the scandal created a nightmare for R*NewYork, while R*North, where the development work took place, was affected far less. Measured against that history, he considers the Grand Theft Auto VI leaks much less consequential and expects the game’s commercial life to extend for many years.

In a follow-up post on X, Vermeij said that “there won’t be much damage if any.” Even a leak of the game’s ending would not change his view. “That would suck,” he said, “but people will still play it.”

The alleged playable build may be limited to development hardware

One detail could still make the leak situation more serious: Cyberleek recently posted footage suggesting access to a playable build. However, there is still no confirmation that the group has released or possesses a complete playable version. A full build would expose far more of the game than isolated clips.

Even so, Vermeij believes the version may only work on a development kit. He said development versions during his time at Rockstar commonly required a dev kit or an access dongle. He also pointed out that those systems have more memory than retail consoles and suggested that there probably was not a build capable of running on a retail PS5 at the time of his comments.

An early PC build remains possible in Vermeij’s view, although he said it could be years behind the console version. Those comments describe one former developer’s view of Rockstar’s development practices rather than confirming Cyberleek’s access.

For now, Vermeij sees the leaks as an internal headache rather than a threat to GTA 6’s long-term prospects. The footage may dominate gaming discussions online, but the audience Rockstar needs to reach is much larger than the group actively searching for leaked videos.

Do the leaks change how you feel about GTA 6? Share your thoughts in the comments, and keep up with more gaming news on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.

Grand Theft Auto VI heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet.