How was 2022? Probably better than Rockstar.The studio said he was the subject of the biggest leak in video game history in September, setting the internet ablaze and giving us the first unauthorized glimpse into Grand Theft Auto 6. (opens in new tab)After that, the company continued to pull hundreds of millions of dollars out of GTA Online. (opens in new tab) That alone probably softened the blow a bit.
It was a wild ride. After Rockstar launched GTA 6, February blog post (opens in new tab) Confirming that “active development for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is on track,” the studio returned to its characteristic silence regarding future projects. We’ve seen plenty of videos and screenshots of the upcoming game until the bustling day GTA Forum (opens in new tab) As if the GTA 6 data truck capsized on the highway.
Since then it has only gotten weirder and bigger. We are talking about the international black hat hacking network, the criminal investigation by the British police and his FBI, and the eventual arrest of his teenage suspected hacker.
wait, what happened?
First, let’s lay the groundwork for what really happened and what we learned from it. On September 19th, a user named teapotuberhacker dumped his treasure trove of GTA 6 material on the GTAForums fansite. A total of 90 videos (some lasting seconds, others minutes) seemed irrefutable and legitimate to anyone who watched them. (opens in new tab)“.
Teapotuberhacker also Uber Hacked September 15th (opens in new tab), the attackers gained administrative access to Uber’s entire network. Uber previously said he suspected he was attacked by someone belonging to the hacking group Lapsus$, an international hacking group that targets the likes of Nvidia and Microsoft. Lapsus$ said her 16-year-old girl in the UK was already in the news in 2022. accused of being one of its leaders (opens in new tab).
so far, yes zero cool (opens in new tab)But rather than a cinematic Holmes-and-Moriarty-style war of intelligence between police and crooks, the story reached adversity a few days later. In an investigation involving the FBI and carried out in collaboration with the City of London Police, his 17-year-old boy from Oxfordshire, England, was arrested just days after the leak occurred. He denied his one charge of computer misuse. (opens in new tab) However, he pleaded guilty to violating a series of previous bail conditions. Since then it has all been very quiet.
And that’s… where we are at the end of the year: teenagers in juvenile detention, countless videos of games that haven’t seen the light of day for years floating around the internet, and someone, somewhere out there, playing GTA 5 and 6 source code, which probably didn’t end the sleepless nights for Rockstar’s engineers.
Throwing rich footage of early builds without context onto the internet is confusing, discouraging, uneducating, and only makes Rockstars more jealously guard their secrets.
what have we learned? That GTA 6 is a lot like GTA 5 (which was a lot like GTA 4…you get the idea). A crime has occurred, the police have been dispatched to stop the crime, the action is taken from a third-person perspective, and in the background of it all, the NPC is just as funny and funny as he’s been in his GTA. I say outrageous things. game for the last 20 years.
probably the only new did GTA 6 will likely feature at least two main characters, one of whom, a Latino woman called Lucia, will be the first playable female protagonist in a single-player game since GTA 2 on Game Boy Color. become.
It’s pretty decent, but I wouldn’t say it’s decent enough to go to jail.
no one wins (hi, i’m nobody)
If you’re trying to figure out who comes first in all of this, for some reason I am. It makes me want to point the finger at the fans. I had a quick look at and was intrigued. What do you not like?
Well, the fact that it’s an early confused mess is mostly. Whatever GTA 6 ends up being, it only vaguely resembles the weird video we saw in September (filled with placeholder text and recycled assets). I’m all for wiping out the silly obfuscation around game development. By all means, let your fans see what it’s like to make a game from day one. Throwing rich footage of early builds without context onto the internet is confusing, discouraging, uneducating, and only makes Rockstars more jealously guard their secrets.
Hackers didn’t win either. If the true culprit is not a teenager apprehended by British police, it is only a matter of time before they are arrested and international law enforcement is on his back to show the world that he is GTA. You will draw a target. Having a woman in it doesn’t feel like a particularly glorious act of martyrdom to me.
But I have a feeling that I can’t get out of it. Do you know who got a lot out of this? myself. Video game news writers are everywhere, to be precise. We moved the history of gaming: a fast-paced, complex story that can really make you grit your teeth. In a week or two, it became very easy for me to choose which stories to focus on when I started working. Wikipedia page (opens in new tab).
It’s a terrible truth, I’m afraid. It didn’t do any good for fans, hackers, or rock stars. But me? I could throw a dart and hit something worth writing about. I’ve emailed, perused PDFs, and created enough Google docs to compose a novel. Through all this nonsense, I’m sure it’s the closest anyone gets to getting something positive out of it.
