A new batch of details from one of the infamous leaks in video game history has been shared online. We also have potentially learned another piece of information that tells us the sheer size of GTA 6.
It was 2 years on Wednesday since teen hacker Arion Kurtaj leaked 90 videos of GTA 6 gameplay before the game had even been formally announced. This was just one of several cybercrimes committed by Kurtaj over the course of a couple of years. Ultimately, this string of activity led him to an indefinite hospital stay after being found guilty earlier this year.
What we know so far
How a teenager was able to gain access to such sensitive and confidential content has been a wonder of many since the gameplay leaks began. We did learn some details about his Rockstar Games hack from his trial but not the full story.
What we did know is that he was being kept under police protection in a hotel room due to previous crimes. Inside that room, he conducted more cyber attacks. The Rockstar Games hack was carried out using a recently acquired phone, keyboard, mouse and Amazon Fire TV Stick. Quite a limited arsenal for such a grand heist.
The untold hacking events
Now a reputable content creator in the GTA community, Mors Mutual (not to be confused with the in-game insurance company), has shared some inside details about how Kurtaj gained access to Rockstar’s internal systems.
The content creator posted a Tweet on Wednesday following the second anniversary of the cyberattack. Mors shares that a contact of his who works at Rockstar recently spoke to him following the release of a video he made titled “The Most Secretive Gaming Company“.
The video delves into Rockstar Games’ secrecy, company and studio structure plus the GTA 6 leak and more. This is just one of his videos that has earned him a lot of recognition to do his in-depth accuracy.
This Rockstar Games employee then revealed to Mors that Kurtaj used a phishing scam via email on a developer who works for Rockstar Games India, one of the company’s newest studios. The target from that studio was working from home and gave up their information unknowingly. For example, their browser data was logged by Kurtaj who used this to access Rockstar’s Slack channels.
GTA VI might be bigger than first thought
In terms of an actual new GTA VI detail, according to Mors, Rockstar’s India studio was assigned to work on the Vice Beach area. That’s several hundreds of people who were working on just one part of the Leonida map. Quite an indication of just how big GTA VI will be.
“The beach area will largely be credited to them, though, of course, other studios are contributing their part as well in this” said Mors on Twitter. He also speculates based on job listings they’re working on many other areas of GTA VI now.
Mors went onto say that Rockstar India is “likely Rockstar’s biggest studio at the moment” and “they’ve delivered incredible work on RDR 2 and other titles”.
Not many people know about Rockstar’s Bangalore-based operation. Having worked with Technicolor India on Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire, and Max Payne 3, Rockstar formed the India office for Red Dead Redemption 2. They then acquired India’s oldest game developer Dhruva Interactive in 2019 and merged it with their Bangalore team.
The other major GTA VI leak was the trailer itself last December. That too had a post-mortem revealing how a Google employee was paid to share it to a bad actor. You can learn the full details on the first trailer leak here.
To keep up to date with every GTA VI and Rockstar Games news update, make sure to check back to RockstarINTEL and sign up to our newsletter for a weekly round-up of all things Rockstar Games.
Subscribe to our newsletter to get all of the must-read Rockstar Games news stories delivered to your inbox. Plus, we’ll sometimes include some PlayStation and Xbox gift codes for you so keep on the look out!
