Rockstar’s War on GTA 6 Leaks: Drones, Blackmail Attempts, and a Five-Person Security Team
Grand Theft Auto VI is two months from launch, and new details from this week’s employment tribunal hearing show just how far Rockstar Games has gone to keep the game under wraps. Testimony connected to the ongoing case over 34 dismissed developers, which we covered here, has pulled back the curtain on Rockstar’s anti-leak operation: a dedicated security team, drone incidents at its offices, and hacker groups attempting to extort the studio as recently as a few weeks ago.
Meet Rockstar’s Five-Person Anti-Leak Team
According to testimony given during the Glasgow Tribunals Centre hearing, Rockstar maintains a full-time team of five investigators plus a director whose entire job is watching for potential leaks of GTA 6 material. Rockstar has framed the secrecy around the game in dramatic terms, describing its efforts as being “akin to Apple protecting the iPhone or Coke protecting its formula.” The company also told the tribunal that its internal standards for information security and privacy are exponentially beyond what most employers would consider normal.
Grand Theft Auto VI is currently scheduled to launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19
Drones Over the Studio and the Privacy Film Fix
Physical security has become part of the story too. Outsiders reportedly used drones to fly close to Rockstar’s offices and record footage of in-progress builds through the windows, prompting the studio to install privacy film across its buildings. Testimony also detailed a string of other measures Rockstar has rolled out around GTA 6: a ban on external storage devices inside its offices, strict no-photography rules for visitors, and tighter restrictions on remote work for staff who could otherwise access unreleased material from outside the studio.
A History of Leaks, From 2022 to This Summer’s Netflix Scare
None of this is happening in a vacuum. Rockstar suffered a major breach back in 2022, when a teenage hacker linked to the Lapsus$ group leaked a huge trove of early GTA 6 development footage. More recently, clips from a playable build circulated online just days before Rockstar and Netflix’s Extended Look premiere on August 27, an incident Rockstar has previously called heartbreaking for its development team. A leaker or group going by the name CyberLeek has been tied to that particular batch of clips, though it’s worth being clear about what is and isn’t confirmed here.
Blackmail Attempts and an Unconfirmed Connection
Separately from the CyberLeek leaks, tribunal testimony described hacker groups attempting to blackmail Rockstar over GTA 6 material as recently as the last few weeks. No outlet or piece of testimony has confirmed that CyberLeek is behind those extortion attempts, so treat any link between the two as speculation rather than fact for now. What is clear is that Rockstar is dealing with pressure on multiple fronts at once: leakers looking to spoil the game early, opportunists trying to profit from stolen material, and now a legal fight with former employees playing out just weeks before launch.
Why This Matters as Launch Approaches
The Glasgow hearing is expected to run into mid-October, just weeks before Grand Theft Auto VI launches on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19. Whatever the tribunal ultimately decides about the fired developers, this week’s testimony has made one thing obvious: keeping a game this anticipated under wraps has turned into a genuine security operation, not just a marketing talking point. For everything Rockstar has shown of the game itself so far, check out our recap of the Extended Look, and for the legal side of this story, see our full coverage of the tribunal hearing.
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Picture Source: Rockstar Games
