The most anticipated game of the decade is 89 days from launch — and Rockstar just lost control of the story.
Take-Two Interactive has escalated from takedown notices to federal court. On August 20, the publisher filed DMCA subpoenas in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking to identify the person or group operating under the alias "Cyberleek," which has spent the past week releasing what appears to be genuine Grand Theft Auto VI gameplay footage.
Microsoft and Discord have been given until September 4 to hand over records. Reports indicate the requests were granted the day after filing.
The timing could hardly be worse for Rockstar. Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look premieres on Netflix this Thursday, August 27 — the studio's first official showing of gameplay after nearly three years of atmosphere-heavy trailers. Instead of controlling that moment, Rockstar is now competing with an unauthorized version of it.
What the subpoenas actually ask for
These are not narrow requests. According to filings reported by Kotaku, Variety and others, Take-Two is seeking:
- From Microsoft: account IDs, registration emails, registration and last-login IP addresses, phone numbers, device identifiers, linked services, and internal investigative records tied to the "cyberleek" persona — including OneDrive content referencing GTA, Rockstar or Cyberleek.
- From Discord: identifying information for users across several named servers dating back to June 1, 2026, plus device and telemetry records connected to leaked file artifacts.
At least one report indicates GitHub was named as well.
Discord, for its part, told Variety that receiving DMCA-related subpoenas is routine and that it reviews and complies with valid ones.
One detail has not gone unnoticed by the community: the filings describe the leaked material as copyrighted. Rockstar has never publicly authenticated the footage, but multiple outlets have read that language as an implicit acknowledgment that this is the real thing rather than an elaborate fabrication.
What's actually in the leaks
The clips began circulating around August 18 and have continued in a steady drip — reportedly seven or more videos as of Friday. Rockstar has not commented on the age of the build, which matters: features shown may not reflect the shipping game.
What analysts and outlets have catalogued so far:
- Jason at the reveal-trailer house, playing a basketball mini-game that appears to raise a "focus" stat on a successful shot — pointing toward RPG-style progression systems.
- A carjacking sequence involving a Truffade Thrax, with a button prompt to physically drag the driver out, followed by an extended, uneventful drive through the city that gave the clearest look yet at world density and scale.
- Melee combat with multiple bladed weapons, noticeably more animation depth than previous entries, and visible injuries persisting on Jason's body after fights.
- An eight-slot weapon wheel plus a separate item wheel — a departure from the shared-selection system of prior games.
- Consumable healing items, including one that reportedly loses effectiveness with repeated use.
- A context-sensitive minimap that appears to surface while driving or during a wanted level.
PC Gamer's own breakdown of the footage flagged a possible morality system and a stamina meter among roughly fifteen details worth watching.
A warning worth repeating: there is no downloadable playable build of GTA VI in circulation. Any site or Discord server claiming to sell one is distributing malware.
The leaker's stated motive — and the crypto asterisk
Cyberleek has framed the releases as protest. A manifesto circulated alongside the footage calls on publishers to abandon practices like digital pre-orders and finished content locked behind paywalls or sold as DLC. The absence of a physical disc for GTA VI — a first in the franchise's 28-year history, with the "physical" edition shipping as a code in a box — appears to be a specific grievance.
That said, the videos have also carried promotion for a cryptocurrency meme coin the group stands to profit from, which has complicated the community's reaction considerably. Reactions have been genuinely split: some fans are consuming every frame, others are actively avoiding the footage out of respect for a development team that has now had years of security discipline undone in a week.
Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has reported that Rockstar has not yet identified the source or determined how the breach occurred, and that internal morale has taken a significant hit heading into launch.
