Massive Grand Theft Auto 6 leak ‘won’t have any influence on development,’ says Take-Two boss
TakeTwo is remaining headstrong in the face of September’s Grand Theft Auto 6 leaks (opens in new tab), 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 (opens in new tab): 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 (opens in new tab) 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 (opens in new tab) 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” (opens in new tab) rather than one that produces “flops.”
