Former Rockstar dev says GTA 6 leaks are a "nothing burger" compared to Hot Coffee scandal
As Rockstar Games scrambles to contain a week-long leak of Grand Theft Auto 6 footage ahead of its Netflix-exclusive gameplay reveal, a former technical director at the studio has poured cold water on the idea that the incident will cause lasting harm.
Obbe Vermeij, who spent nearly 14 years at Rockstar North working on every mainline GTA title from GTA 3 to GTA 4's Ballad of Gay Tony expansion, has described the leaks as a "nothing burger." In posts on social media over the weekend, Vermeij urged fans to "calm down everybody," arguing that the damage is far less severe than it might appear.
The leaks, orchestrated by a hacker known as Cyberleek, have spilled onto the internet over six days and appear to show ongoing access to a playable build of the game. The hacker claims to be promoting a crypto scheme and pressuring Rockstar to protect players' digital rights. Parent company Take-Two is reportedly taking the situation seriously, but Vermeij believes the impact will be minimal.
"All that has happened is that some footage has escaped," Vermeij said. "Slightly ahead of the Netflix thing next week." He noted that Rockstar has kept GTA 6 under wraps for longer than other publishers typically do as a deliberate marketing strategy, meaning that if the game had already gone through a normal trailer rollout, the leaks would reveal little of consequence.
A matter of audience
Vermeij's key argument is that the vast majority of the eventual player base is not hunting for leaked clips online. "90% of future players don't spend their time on the internet looking for video snippets," he wrote. "They don't have the time and don't want spoilers."
He acknowledged that the development teams are likely "a little annoyed" about the situation, but no more than that. Even if Cyberleek were to go further and leak something as significant as the game's ending, Vermeij does not believe it would dent sales. "That would suck," he said, "but people will still play it."
The Hot Coffee comparison
Vermeij drew a direct comparison to the biggest crisis he witnessed during his Rockstar tenure: the Hot Coffee scandal of 2005. In that incident, the discovery that GTA: San Andreas had shipped with code for a sex minigame that could be enabled through unofficial modification led to an Adult Only re-rating from the ESRB. Retailers pulled the game from shelves until an updated version could be issued, resulting in an estimated $50 million revenue loss in 2005 and a $20 million class action settlement in 2009.
"It was a nightmare for management," Vermeij said, referring to Rockstar's New York offices, "but didn't affect us [Rockstar North] much. The current leaks are far less consequential than [Hot Coffee] was."
Measured against that level of brand damage, Vermeij figures "there won't be much damage if any" from the GTA 6 leaks. He described the current situation as "just a tiny blip" for a game whose sales lifespan, if GTA 5 is any indication, is expected to span more than a decade.
The build question
One complicating factor is that Cyberleek recently posted footage suggesting they have access to an actual playable build of the game, raising the possibility of a full build being dumped online. However, Vermeij downplayed that risk. "It probably only runs on a devkit," he said, noting that development kits have far more memory than retail consoles or PCs. "There probably isn't a build in existence that would run on a retail PS5 at the moment."
Vermeij, who himself once ran afoul of his former employer by publishing a short-lived blog about his GTA development days, remains confident that the leaks will not derail the game's eventual success. "It looks like GTA 6 will be phenomenal and sell for the next 15 years or so," he concluded.