Massive GTA 6 leak won't impact development, says publisher

The hack that Rockstar Games suffered in September will not have any adverse effects on the development of Grand Theft Auto VI, as per the statement of CEO Strauss Zelnick in the publisher's second quarter earnings call.

The teenager who is accused of breaching the studio's security through a "network intrusion" to release gameplay of Grand Theft Auto VI onto the Internet appeared during a hearing at the Highbury Corner Youth Court in London. He pleaded guilty to the two charges of breach of bail conditions however pleaded not guilty to the two counts of computer misuse, and as such, the case has since been referred to a higher court and the accused teenager has been remanded to a youth detention centre.

Check out these phenomenal Grand Theft Auto V wins and fails right here!

Rockstar Games was, well, rocked by the cyberattack, and developers sent their sympathies to the team given that the reveal was not what they had intended for the game. Furthermore, Take-Two Interactive's share price dipped by more than six percent in pre-market trading on the day of the hack. Now, in the earning call for the publisher's second quarter results that was hosted on Monday, Take-Two Interactive has acknowledged the potential knock-ons that the hack has had on the progress of Grand Theft Auto VI.

“With regards to the leak, it was terribly unfortunate, and we take those sorts of incidents very seriously indeed,” said Strauss Zelnick (cheers, VGC).

“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.”

This is heartening news for fans, who will be waiting over nine years for the new game, as a result of the success of Red Dead Redemption 2 and the fact that Grand Theft Auto VI underwent a reboot before becoming the game that we saw in September.