Rockstar confirms hacker penetrated systems, stole Grand Theft Auto VI footage

gamedeveloper.com:

Rockstar Games has confirmed that a hacker penetrated its systems and stole in-development footage of Grand Theft Auto VI, which is now circulating online.

Word of the hack began circulating over the weekend as an unknown hacker going by variations of the name "Teapotuberhacker" began uploading in-development footage of what was purportedly the next title in the Grand Theft Auto series (informally named "Grand Theft Auto VI," pending the announcement of an actual name).

"We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto," the company wrote in a statement posted to social media. "At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to our live game services nor any long-term effect on the development of our ongoing projects."

The company went on to state that work on the next Grand Theft Auto game would "continue as planned" and that it would properly introduce its next game "when it is ready."

It's not clear how much information the hacker managed to obtain in the breach. A user posting under the name of Teapotuberhacker on a Grand Theft Auto fan forum claimed to have downloaded the stolen content from a Rockstar Games Slack channel. They also said they had exports from the company's Confluence page.

Said forum has now removed copies of the footage and warned users about posting copyrighted material. Teapotuberhacker's account has also been banned.

Rockstar Games and publisher Take-Two have not formally announced the next Grand Theft Auto game, though Take-Two did inform investors that development of the much-anticipated next entry in the series was "well