Massive Grand Theft Auto 6 leak 'won't have any influence on development,' says Take-Two boss

A man holding a gun drives a boat as money flies out the back in GTA Online
(Image credit: Rockstar)

TakeTwo is remaining headstrong in the face of September's Grand Theft Auto 6 leaks, calling the situation "terribly unfortunate," but clarifying that it won't have any overarching impact on the game's development.

The comments came from Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick, during the publisher's quarterly earnings call with investors. "With regards to the leak, it was terribly unfortunate, and we take those sorts of incidents very seriously indeed," Zelnick said. "There's no evidence that any material assets were taken, which is a good thing, and certainly the leak won't have any influence on development or anything of the sort. But it is terribly disappointing, and causes us to be ever more vigilant on matters relating to cybersecurity."

It's rather surprising to see how little the leak has halted development, and how calm Zelnick seems to be about what was touted as one of the biggest leaks in videogame history. It saw 90 videos from a test build of the game thrown out to the internet at large. There were things we did and didn't learn from the GTA 6 leak: we found out the protagonists' names and essentially confirmed the earlier rumours of a female protagonist. We learned its setting, though we didn't see a whole lot of it, as well as a glimpse at what seemed to be some new stealth systems. 

The leak had developers coming out in their droves to support Rockstar and those whose tireless efforts were shown to the world too early. Many also responded to fans who thought that GTA 6 looked rough or rubbish with their own early game builds to demonstrate that yes, sometimes they can look a bit naff.

Take-Two is looking "highly optimistic" about its fiscal future, despite predictions that it's going to make less money than originally anticipated. That's in part thanks to GTA 6, but also the continuation of GTA 5, the 2K Sports games and a three-year lineup that includes 24 "immersive core" games. It might be taking the publisher a while to turn out games, but Zelnick insists that it's because the company is a "hit factory" rather than one that produces "flops."

Mollie Taylor
Features Producer

Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.  

Read more
GTA 6 trailer
I'm sorry to say Rockstar still won't tell us when (or even if) Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming to PC
Trevor's voice actor says he won't be in GTA 6, though would've liked a cameo where he got 'killed at the beginning'
Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer still - woman in the front seat of a car, looking out the back window while holding a wad of cash
GTA 6 was never going to be at The Game Awards, but it is a little surprising that we haven't seen another trailer yet
Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer art
Peripheral maker Corsair says Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming to PC in 'early 2026,' then immediately yoinks it back
GTA 6 trailer
GTA 6: What we know about Rockstar's return to Vice City
gta 6 trailer
Take-Two chief says PC has become a 'more important part of what used to be a console business,' but he's still not committing to a Grand Theft Auto 6 release
Latest in Grand Theft Auto
GTA 5 characters
GTA 5 publisher takes legal aim at account-selling site for allegedly raking in 'millions in revenue', while recruiting hackers to keep its cogs turning
GTA 5 Enhanced
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced is a bitter-sweet return to Rockstar's money-making machine
Grand Theft Auto 5
How to transfer your GTA 5 save file to GTA 5 Enhanced and accept Rockstar's Online Policies if needed
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced screen - Trevor setting fire to somebody's big dumb truck
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced launch is going poorly or well depending on how you look at it: It's got a 'mixed' rating on Steam and is one of the most-played games
GTA 5 Enhanced Edition
What's the difference between Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced and Legacy?
GTA 5 money
The Grand Theft Auto series has now sold over 440 million copies, and say g'day to Rockstar Australia
Latest in News
Nvidia RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card on different backgrounds
AI will be crammed in more of the graphics pipeline as Nvidia and Microsoft are bringing AI shading to a DirectX preview next month
Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics cards alongside an RTX 4090
Nvidia says it's sold twice as many RTX 50-series cards as RTX 40-series in the first 5 weeks. I'd bloody well hope so given there was essentially just the RTX 4090 for competition
AMD Radeon RX 9070/9070 XT graphics cards with artistic renders of reference design cards circled
Looks like a reference design AMD RX 9070 XT card has shown up in China, but let's not get carried away with thoughts of MBA cards just yet
Concept art of WoW's upcoming player housing system, showing a warm homestead with a welcoming figure in shade.
WoW flexes its MMO player housing system in a new blog post, and it really might just beat FF14's dated furniture placement into the dirt
spectre divide
Spectre Divide and its studio are shutting down after just six months: 'The industry is in a tough spot right now'
Naoe looking at the wrist blade in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Ubisoft backflips, says Assassin's Creed Shadows will support Steam Deck at launch, but I doubt I'll actually want to play it there