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Rockstar Games logo in front of older titles: The "GTA" series is one of the best-known game series of all
Photo: SOPA Images / SOPA Images / LightRocket / Getty Images
Millions of video gamers have been eagerly awaiting the next installment in the »Grand Theft Auto« series for years.
»GTA V«, the current series part, has been on the market since 2013.
Since then, the action spectacle and its online mode »GTA Online« have been re-released and expanded several times.
However, a real successor is only expected in the coming years.
The manufacturer Rockstar Games has so far communicated little more about "GTA VI" than that it is being worked on.
The little reliable information that was already circulating about the game came from Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, who is well connected in the games industry.
He revealed in late July that the next "GTA" will be set in Vice City, a fictional Miami, and that for the first time in the series' history, there will also be a female lead, as part of a "Bonnie and Clyde"-esque duo.
Fans are hungry for material
At the weekend, screenshots and gameplay videos suddenly made the rounds in game forums, but also on platforms such as YouTube and Twitter, which apparently show an early version "GTA VI".
Dozens of short sequences showed, for example, how someone as a woman named Lucia raids a diner or how two characters talk by a pool.
The material doesn't look like a finished game, sometimes developer tools overlay the image.
But due to their mass and details such as professional soundtracks, the recordings make more of an impression than the usual fake material that trolls or "GTA" fans usually use to vie for a few clicks and attention.
Many gamers were also rather positive about the content of the leak on Sunday.
The clips seemed to increase rather than disrupt her anticipation for the game.
"A Nightmare for Rockstar Games"
Jason Schreier tweeted Sunday that his sources at Rockstar Games had confirmed the footage was genuine.
The recordings show an early and unfinished version of the game.
The leak is "one of the biggest leaks in video game history and a nightmare for Rockstar Games," Schreier wrote.
He also speculated that the leak could keep Rockstar Games developers from working for a while.
Likewise, the incident could prompt management to limit employees' flexibility in terms of working from home.
It seems clear that Rockstar Games' trouble is not over yet: The forum user who posted the video material online claims that he has captured even more data, including the source codes for "GTA V" and "GTA VI".
Whether this data, the mod developers, but also cheaters are likely to be of interest, remains to be seen.
According to their own information, the user is ready to negotiate with Rockstar Games.
Incidentally, the leaker claims to be the person who broke into the computer systems of the Uber transport service last week and caused chaos there.
In the case of Uber, a hacker had apparently managed to get the access data from an employee of the company via WhatsApp.
The Uber intruder told the New York Times that he was only 18 years old.
When and how exactly Rockstar Games lost control of its data is still unclear.
Take-Two, the manufacturer's parent company, has not yet commented on the "GTA VI" leak.
However, some videos with material from the data package have now disappeared from YouTube – apparently because Take-Two had pushed for it.
mbo
