What could possibly be worse than footage of the world’s most anticipated video game leaking onto the internet early, in an unfinished state? Easy. A game with a similar cultural footprint becoming playable ahead of its release. It seems unthinkable now in the age of Denuvo, but this exact nightmare scenario happened for Rockstar ahead of the release of Grand Theft Auto 5.
The leaks began a few weeks before GTA 5‘s official launch, after a snafu with the PlayStation Store allowed players with pre-orders to access some of the game’s files. At first, the leaks didn’t seem like such a big deal. The files told fans how much space the game would take up on their PS3 hard drives, and listed specific songs from the game’s soundtrack. Another leak stemming from early strategy guides also showed players the game’s map sooner than intended.
To be sure, the leaks didn’t make anyone working on the game happy. A blog post from Rockstar said, “As you can imagine, we are deeply disappointed by leaks and spoilers being spread in advance of the game’s launch. GTA V represents years of hard work by many people across the world, and we all couldn’t be more excited to finally share it with you properly this September 17th.”
Sony, for its part, subsequently pulled the preload and apologized profusely to fans and Rockstar for the gaffe. Compared to the GTA 6 leaks, where players were able to see the main characters naked, this data breach sounds quaint. It’s less common these days, but there are plenty of modern examples of major games being pirated early. Heck, nearly every big Nintendo game of the last generation was pirated well ahead of launch.
Back in 2013, however, digital games had just entered the mainstream — and leaks of this magnitude weren’t a regular occurrence. The situation worsened quickly after players began sharing information about the game’s story and ending. Rockstar and Sony alike had to warn players that they could be banned for spoiling the game early. While we’ve seen glimpses of GTA 6‘s story and have some educated guesses about its ending, Rockstar has managed to keep such details under wraps so far.
None of these events were nearly as significant as what came after: the game was uploaded to torrent websites. This leak subsequently allowed people with jailbroken consoles to play the game early without paying for it. Can you imagine the chaos that would unfold if the same happened in GTA 6? A leaker merely threatening to release GTA 6 early has been called a “doomsday scenario.”
The circumstances are wildly different, of course. The game that leaked in 2013 was, as far as anyone could tell, the finished experience — and it was pirated somewhat close to launch. The GTA 6 that’s ostensibly being held hostage by Cyberleek may be an old build with accompanying dev tools. Rockstar doesn’t plan on releasing GTA 6 on a physical disc, and it’s unclear if the PC version will only be streamable. The consequences of a GTA 6 leak where players could poke at the game’s files and see how the sausage was made are hard to predict.
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Phones and cameras also weren’t nearly as good as they are now, so many of the leaks were shared in tiny, grainy pictures that were sometimes hard to make out.
“I don’t know how 240p video even exists,” one NeoGAF user complained.
Half of these leaks occurred on Vine, which doesn’t even exist anymore. Meanwhile, GTA 6‘s leaks show the protagonists fully nude in 4K.
Some things are true in 2026 as they were in 2013, though. Years before they marveled at digital mud, fans couldn’t believe how realistic GTA 5 looked.
“This could almost be a real live video footage,” one Redditor remarked.
Most of all, nearly everyone hated watching the way other people played GTA. Either leakers are cursed to be bad video game players … or no one is as good at GTA as they think.
“The dude was driving like an idiot,” another NeoGAF user wrote.