More than 18 months after the release of the last trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6, apparent leaks of gameplay footage have emerged online ahead of a planned major preview of the highly anticipated title.
Rockstar Games has announced that GTA 6 will be released on 19 November for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, with a PC version expected to follow at a later date.
The developer had recently indicated that it would end its lengthy silence with an extended preview of the game in a Netflix special.
However, the planned showcase has been overshadowed by a series of clips that appear to show the game in development.
Rockstar has not publicly commented on the footage. Its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, has instead taken legal action over the alleged leaks.
Court filings in New York reportedly seek information from Microsoft-owned GitHub and messaging platform Discord about accounts suspected of distributing copyrighted material.
Several copies of the leaked footage have also been removed following copyright complaints, while accounts claiming to be linked to the group responsible for the leaks have disappeared.
Experts say leaks unlikely to derail GTA 6
The leaks have been described by some fans as a major setback for Rockstar, which is known for keeping its games tightly under wraps.
Former Rockstar technical director Obbe Vermeij, who worked on GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas, said maintaining secrecy had long been part of the company's culture.
Vermeij said the scale of modern Rockstar productions makes keeping information confidential increasingly difficult, with thousands of employees involved in developing the company's games.
Gaming journalist Wesley Yin-Poole, news director at IGN, described GTA 6 as an enormous project that has been in development for roughly a decade.
He said seeing the game exposed in this way would likely have been particularly difficult for those involved in its development.
The group claiming responsibility for the leaks has said it is acting in the interests of gamers and has criticised Rockstar over what it considers anti-consumer practices, including the reported decision not to release a physical disc version of the game at launch.
However, those claims have been met with scepticism. New releases of alleged material have reportedly been accompanied by requests for cryptocurrency donations.
Campaign group Stop Killing Games has condemned the alleged leaks as destructive and urged people not to financially support those claiming responsibility.
Yin-Poole said many observers remain unconvinced by the group's stated motivations, with speculation that financial gain could be behind the leaks.
Fans eagerly awaiting official footage
Rockstar has so far released two official trailers for GTA 6, with the most recent arriving in May 2025.
Since then, fans have closely analysed the company's social media posts and promotional material in search of clues about the game and its release.
Vermeij said Rockstar's secrecy may have contributed to the intense speculation surrounding every new piece of information.
He believes the strategy creates excitement but can also cause relatively minor details to become the subject of intense fan theories.
Despite the leaks, analysts believe the game is unlikely to suffer significant long-term damage.
Yin-Poole said many fans are likely to reserve judgement until they see official gameplay footage or experience the game themselves.
He believes the controversy is unlikely to derail the game's commercial prospects, given the enormous anticipation surrounding its release.
Vermeij also expects the leaks to have little lasting impact, suggesting that the controversy will likely be forgotten by the time GTA 6 reaches players.
With the release date approaching, attention is now expected to shift back to Rockstar's official marketing campaign and the company's planned preview of one of the most anticipated video games in years.