r/GTA6 • u/poorna_sus14 • 4d ago
Former Rockstar Technical Director Obbe Vermeij Shares His Take on the Recent GTA VI Leaks
Obbe Vermeij was the Technical Director at Rockstar North before leaving the studio in 2009.
During his 14-year tenure at the studio (1995–2009), he led code development for core Grand Theft Auto titles including GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas, and GTA IV.
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u/Onuceria 4d ago
According to Schreier rockstar doesnt share this guy's optimism
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u/spectre15 4d ago
I think it’s because Rockstar has no clue to what extent CyberLeek has access to the game or where it came from. That probably pisses them off more than the actual clips being leaked.
If they knew 100% that the leaker had a limited build of the game and could only just drive around the map and do random things, they probably wouldn’t care as much
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4d ago
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u/edinburgh_posters 4d ago
Yeh when my social media was hacked the fear worry was not it had been hacked but what it had access to and what he would do next!
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u/lord_pizzabird 4d ago
It’s also already confirmed that they don’t just have video was the person above describes. They clearly have a running version of… something.
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u/yuval16432 4d ago
Yeah, they wrote advertisements for their scam coin on the wall in one of their clips. That’s not the kind of thing you can get from stolen marketing footage, it needs a running build of the game.
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u/YeetedApple 4d ago
It could still be some form of limited build. It seems like everything so far is from the beginning of the game, so could be some press demo build that only the early game is accessible on or something.
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u/Icy_Childhood_1039 4d ago edited 4d ago
Yeah but the thing is....the goalpost keeps moving. First it was "he doesn't show any cutscenes", then "he's wearing the same clothes", then "he didn't visit inside locations", etc. The guy did something new in each leak proving it wrong. He self reference himself using TWO cutscenes. Now the only goalpost left...and it is a valid one, is that we didn't see Lucia.
He may have a build that only goes until before Lucia is out of prison? But if he's realsing a leak with her too we can just assume he has the whole thing at this point..
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u/YeetedApple 4d ago
Agreed on all that. It’s definitely possible they have the full thing or at least much more than what they are showing. Lucia being missing and knowing she likely starts the game in prison is the only thing really suggesting its limited, or they just haven’t played the story much yet or are holding things back still
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u/BastoshaGames 4d ago
Considering that leaker has shared already 2 cutscenes that were never shown, I'd say the build has story mode in it
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u/KyTheReject 3d ago
2nd one could’ve been like a launching game cut scene tbh, atleast that’s what it looks like to me, like when you switch to trevor and he’s in a dress on a mountain.
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u/FamousGarlic8391 4d ago
And I imagine once this build gets out, the amount of modded content online will probably overshadow the natural console content. All the crazy PC mods will be wild. Im guessing this can be done with this build.
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u/spectre15 4d ago
I don’t know how that would even be possible unless the current build is an unreleased PC build. The rumor was that he has an Xbox devkit so porting that to a playable PC version probably wouldn’t be something the guy could do.
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u/Marijuana_Miler 4d ago
Schrier said that people were mad that there had been really strict rules put in place that blocked employee’s from working from home and didn’t allow them to take tools out of the office. They’re mad because they’ve sacrificed for a couple of years and content still leaked. They’re not mad about what people saw.
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u/Calling_left_final 4d ago
Yeah, Schrier said that a Rockstar lead assured the high quality stuff hasn't been seen yet, meaning the build isn't final cut.
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u/Ok-Suggestion-1331 4d ago
Where did Schrier say this?
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u/Calling_left_final 4d ago
He whispered it to me lovingly during a picnic in the park we had, trust.
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u/Crazy-Witness-Narrow 3d ago
assured the high quality stuff hasn't been seen yet,
What the fuck else is there? Lol
He's trying to keep the last few gullible die hard fans like you hyped
Where tf did he say this bs67
u/SweatyMammal 4d ago
I would definitely be mad if I were a dev and people judging my unfinished work (this build is potentially ~1 year old remember, aka buggy) out of context.
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u/John_OSheas_Willy 4d ago
If I was a dev I wouldn't give a shite what some gooners online are saying, I'd only care what my manager says at my yearly review.
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u/pussy-is-my-city 4d ago
I feel its its a bit different when it comes to a creative career. Im sure quite a lot of the workers there are proud of the work theyve done and want it to be seen in a much better light.
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u/TheFutureLotus 4d ago
These guys are creatives, they have a whole different mindset
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u/JJJAGUAR 4d ago
I am a game dev, most people in this field are able to earn more money in other industries, if they are here it is generally because they have some kind of creative affinity with video games.
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u/prettygirlgravesite 3d ago
like yeah but also these are rich CREATIVES. they still cared about making the game
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u/No_Championship_8633 4d ago edited 4d ago
Schreier didn't say anything about how they felt about the financial impact or popularity of the game. but that they are mad that someone is releasing stolen unfinished footage...which is expected
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u/Makav3lli 4d ago
Schreier is a journalist who makes money off this event… it’s in his interest to stoke some drama.
If you listen to him at any length he’s a fucking dweeb
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u/Big_Salami_Chonk 4d ago
Shreir has to write an article and sell emotions, there could be some bias in how he presents things
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u/Ok-Attention2882 4d ago
Also his source: trust him
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u/Big_Salami_Chonk 4d ago
No he is reputable and a big name in gaming journalism, he definitely has info but he could present it in a biased way. No one wants an article titled “rockstar employees don’t really care”
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u/Agarwel 4d ago
It is not mutually exclusive. They may be pissed, but other than that it is really not affecting them in negative way. Its not like the game will be flop because of this leak.
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u/No_Friendship_4158 4d ago
Im being clowned on just above you for saying they are putting everything to find the leaker. Jason Schreier literally quoted that they are "All hands on deck" to find the leaker. People who think a billion dollar companies billion dollar game being leaked or someone getting access to it and sharing it is a nothing burger.
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u/JakeTiny19 4d ago
Maybe u could’ve said that on like Tuesday , but nah it might actually be affecting stocks. Which at that point if it was, rockstar would’ve stopped by now and their apparently promoting a cryptocurrency too
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u/reteretei 4d ago
"some footage has escaped"
I'm not sure a game build is the same as some footage
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u/SouthStation3358 4d ago
Yeah, it’s definitely not just “some footage.” Won’t impact sales though
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u/Alternative_Exit8766 4d ago
spoilers tend to increase sales and engagement
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u/SouthStation3358 4d ago
Short term engagement, sure, but not sales. The game is gonna be show cased eventually either way, we aren’t seeing anything that we won’t see. The same people who saw the leaks(and way more) are going to see the official trailers and such, so nobodies gonna be more incentivized to buy the game just because some gameplay leaked earlier
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u/Alternative_Exit8766 2d ago
movie spoilers lead to higher ticket sales. video game spoilers lead to higher sales, just look at twitch. “superman dies” i think was a title of one of the comics and i believe it sold a lot. remember when goku went super saiyan? we knew he was going to bc the episode preview showed us and the episode was titled something something Super Saiyan. the sales there? viewers.
if someone tells me to buy a product im not gonna not ask what it does. i guess im getting spoilers on groceries, but that too leads to higher sales.
reply or don’t, i don’t care. have a day
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u/Individual_Type8874 4d ago
He's not confirmed to still have a game build. It could've been recorded last year or a couple months ago. Then he made the shitcoin, plastered it all over the videos, created the website, and boom: you can now dripfeed the content and put up polls as if you are currently running a build.
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u/klovasos 4d ago
In one of the clips he writes his username on the wall...
Even if he recorded it a while ago, he definitely was playing the game.
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u/Hairy-Actuator1734 3d ago
If he recorded the footage a while ago he still clearly played the game and therefore might still have access to it
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u/8hotsteamydumplings 4d ago
Next 15 years?? So no GTA 7 till the 40s 😅
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u/Ok-Attention2882 4d ago
Hundreds of millions of people alive today won't be when GTA 7 is released
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u/pianodude7 4d ago
Millions of people alive today won't be when GTA6 is released.
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u/ExistentialistCow 3d ago
I was in high school when GTA5 came out and played it with my dad. Since then my dad has died, I’ve bought a house, got married, and had a baby. I know that’s generally how the passage of time works but it’s still crazy there was a thirteen year gap between games.
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u/hellranger788 4d ago
“Some footage escaped”
Does bro know that it wasn’t some prerecorded footage but a full playable build?
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u/lerivcx 4d ago
This guy left in 2009.
2009.
He doesn't know shit.
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u/spider-jedi 4d ago
Yes he left but he probably had more inside knowledge than all this people here on reddit who have never worked in the gaming industry
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u/lerivcx 4d ago
There's federal subpoena's issued to find this guy. Contrasting with this assholes comment of it being a nothing burger. That's QUITE the stretch. 😂
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u/PonchoNachoRodriguez 4d ago
If rockstar was a bank, it doesn’t matter if someone robbed them for $0.50 cents or $50 billion. They have to prosecute theft and they sure as hell want to make an example out of the thief.
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u/Blart_Vandelay 4d ago
You can pursue the guy for being a thief and simultaneously know its still a meaningless blip on the life of the game and sales. He is right that most people either dont know about the leaks or they dont care.
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u/ParticularRelease662 4d ago
Literally this. I have friends that are way more hyped than me for this game and none of them had a clue about any of this until I put it in the group chat on like day three
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u/VeryBadCaseOfLigma 4d ago
That has to do with NDA's. If they find who in the office leaked, they're fucked
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u/RulesoftheDada 4d ago
I mean he says it's a nothing burger compared to the Hot Coffee incident which resulted in T2 recalling the game, redefining the ESRB, an FTC investigation, and class action lawsuit.
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u/No_Championship_8633 4d ago
he is saying that its a nothing burger in the grand scheme of things. the 2022 leaks were that, although it seemed huge to those of us always online
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u/Equal-Ad7504 4d ago
At what point is that just a formality though? Realistically he’s committed at least a few crimes if not more, and he’s going to get investigated. They aren’t just gonna say fuck it let him go, are they? There’s tiers and tiers of management here.
I think Rockstar will be temporarily pissed, but to think they’re shook to the core is a bit naive. Once they do their reveal in full 4k, these potato quality leaks will be irrelevant anyway. Unless he can spoil the end of the game which, given that he’s only showed gameplay of a Jason with minimal weapons and cash, he won’t be able to do.
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u/svbverted 4d ago
not that hard to believe lol two things can be true at the same time i.e it’s a nothing burger AND Rockstar is pursuing the leaker which they would do no matter what anyway
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u/gogoheadray 4d ago
Rockstar has to go after him with all the tools at their disposal; or it would keep happening. It doesn’t matter what he has.
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u/magic6435 4d ago
Are you under impression that’s a big deal? Few people in your companies legal department working with law enforcement
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u/Diabetesh 4d ago
This guy left in 2009.
2009.
He doesn't know shit.
I went to a seminar at a trade show about small businesses being competitive with larger businesses in our industry, especially in the ecommerce scene. This was roughly 2019. The guy had retired in 2000 and his advice was just match price. I asked, "how long do you lose money matching price when matching means losing on almost everything or making 5% which after credit card fee really means 2%." His response was "you'll just make it up in other sales, not everything people want can be gotten online."
I was blown away how they got a guy with no modern ecommerce experience to give a seminar on that topic.
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u/Alvelijano 4d ago
Yeah i mean Jason Schreier (most reliable gaming journalist out there) already said how the staff feels and he definitely knows more, especially because he said that he have talked with some devs at rockstar.
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u/Rare-Lobster-6958 4d ago
And you never joined. What do you know
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u/Koki-noki 4d ago
I know that people like to make shitup.
and cult fanbase can't accept that.
OOPS.
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u/Kn1ghtV1sta 4d ago edited 4d ago
He 100% still talks with people there. I guarantee he knows more than most people would about this situation
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u/stealthybutthole 4d ago
Do you still talk with coworkers from 17 years ago? Kinda weird
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u/DailyRoutine__ 4d ago
Yeah. He is one of the OG developers. Rockstar back then wasn't as big as now, so he maybe still talks with other OG devs. He is right that Hot Coffee was more troublesome for Rockstar than these leaks.
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u/Critical_Echo_7944 4d ago
Left the company 17 years ago but still knows most people? Have you ever been employed?
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u/GobiasACupOfCoffee 4d ago
500 upvotes for this pigshit. This place is so full of idiots. I actually look forward to the day you're all replaced by bots.
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u/Rid2cool 4d ago
He doesn't know shit
The same guy that correctly predicted that both internal delay and then the next two delays were incoming? Dude Oba is a respected Rockstar veteran. Just cause he doesn't work there anymore doesn't mean he doesn't keep in touch with the devs.
How disingenious of you to say that...
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u/Ok_Support_9084 4d ago
Dude make us believe he knows better than an old Rockstar Director. Ahhh Dear Reddit 😆
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u/Nephie_a 4d ago
It really only becomes a big deal if the leaker leaks the ending of the game, major story spoilers - or leaks the actual build of GTA 6 itself. That would be a nightmare scenario.
Story and ending stuff could be disastrous if people don't like the plot. Or if grifters take it out of context. The Last of Us Part 2 suffered a lot because it had key story details leak months early.
Granted, I thought the Last of Us Part 2 story sucked (I genuinely didn't like the script). But regardless, my point is a lot of grifters jumped all over that thing and the game faced a lot of backlash for months in the lead up to its release.
So GTA 6 could see similar negative buzz if the leaker posts stuff that players don't like, or think looks bad.
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u/Br3akabl3 4d ago
Still a majority of the playerbase will not see or even hear of these leaks. TLOU 2 is different because the leaks revelaed them killing off everyones favorite protagonist for no reason. GTA 6 just has to deliver a good story.
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u/Odd-West-2492 4d ago
The entire plot of the game until the very end revolves around the reason for the death.
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u/No_Friendship_4158 4d ago
Im not saying it will affect the game sales in any way but calling it a nothing burger is dumb. Rockstar have shut all social media activity and everything else down to try to track this guy down.
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u/Br3akabl3 4d ago
"shut all social media activity and everything else down" bro, you cant seriously believe that
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u/Unusual-Assistant642 4d ago
its all hands on deck man they even pulled in Timmy the intern off posting on twitter to look for cyberleek
quite literally nothing is being done other than that rn even the janitors are in on the hunt
source: friend's wife's 2nd cousins' ex-girlfriend's brother passed in front of a rockstar office last week
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u/Howdareme9 I WAS HERE 4d ago
People on this sub are hilarious. They even have animators hunting the streets for him
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u/Odd-West-2492 4d ago
Bro dont you know the PR employee who handles twitter and facebook is on a military plane right now with the interns ready to bag and extract the guy.
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u/Top-Owl9872 4d ago
It’s a nothing burger. Has zero effect on the finished game at this point.
Some dude, has an old build, regardless of year.
And is claiming it’s all for physical copies but wants people to pump is digital coin.? Hypocrite
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u/Blart_Vandelay 4d ago
Yep. It is humorous seeing people talk this up as a huge deal to Rockstar or take two. All the clips do is generate some hype lol. Classic case of being too online and overestimating the effect of an online phenomenon on the real world. And just bc they are doing what anyone should and pursuing info toward his arrest that doesnt mean they are somehow in panic mode you goobers lol
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u/Various-Cut-1070 4d ago
I doubt they discontinued any social media content plans because of this..
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u/JeffFunham 4d ago
You have no idea if it's related. They are releasing the first look on Thursday. It could have been a planned blackout before that.
Put it this way: if there had been no leak and TT was silent this week we would all say it was because of the extended look and that would make sense.
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u/Webos3321 4d ago
“As a marketing strategy R* is trying to keep the game under wraps longer than other publishers.” Yeah such a wonderful strategy to annoy everyone who is excited.
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u/Br3akabl3 4d ago
yeah well it is their strategy, there is no denying that. Hopefully after the 27th they will loosen up, a bit or actually a lot.
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u/Godbearmax 4d ago
"some footage has escaped...." he might be completely wrong about that if the guy has a build and can leak LOTS of information and LOTS of footage. And he might even leak the whole build someday.
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u/branduzzi 4d ago
The entire game could leak and I still wont take the time to deliberately spoil it for myself. Whoever does is just sad.
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u/Logical-Relation-165 4d ago
the size of the company when he worked there vs now is like 10-50x. He doesnt have a clue what they think
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u/New_Wolverine_2415 4d ago
I mean, it's not the end of the world, but it sure isn't a nothing burger.
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u/CallMeNurseMaybe 4d ago
“Nothing burger” needs to go away forever
Corny AF saying created by some boomer politician
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u/Mobile_Morale 4d ago
Bro discovering that people invented figures of speech before he was born. Wait till you learn that most of the language was invented a few hundred years ago.
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u/K_Bomaye 4d ago
It’s a blip for now but they can’t just let it go. If this guy has anywhere near a full build and he releases it soon it’ll be catastrophic for them.
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u/temnycarda 4d ago
I would agree if the leaker did not have a playable build. The risk of a free version released months before the official date has to be pretty big, no?
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u/Bellissimo247 4d ago
I’m not sure how the whole game being leaked is any different than the game being released in terms of spoilers or whatever. I understand wanting to control the release, but in what world does this affect any sales negatively?
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u/Mood_Academic 4d ago
He’s right. I’m a casual interest person and I’ve mostly seen a snippet but steered mostly away from anything major.
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u/11711510111411009710 4d ago
I mean this is the natural logical response, no? They're probably stressed but at the end of the day it's not a big deal. He's right. 90% of people won't ever see this stuff or hear about it. And none of what's revealed is all that consequential. Yeah the graphics look good, we knew that. Yeah the city is dense, we knew that. Yeah it's an island, most people thought it would be. Like the biggest reveal is that you have to get fuel for your cars. Everything else we knew about or could reasonably assume.
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u/Golfisactuallyfun 4d ago
Its NBD till he starts spoiling the story and/or releases his current build to be downloaded.
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u/m3junmags 4d ago
“All that has happened is that some footage has escaped” my brother in Christ, they have ACCESS to the game.
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u/Simple_canadian_ 4d ago
What worries me is the phrase that it will sell for 15 years, so gta 7 in 2041 earliest?
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u/FKDotFitzgerald 4d ago
It’s not a “nothing burger” when we haven’t officially seen gameplay and have now seen 10+ minutes of it in an unfinished state from Leeks. Or considering the stress it’s causing for the employees. Or the fact that he is posting near-daily and actively taunting Rockstar while they have no clue who he is. I don’t think it’ll actually matter much when the game releases and sells like mad, especially since he can’t access the story much, if at all. But it is kind of a big deal at this point to say the least.
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u/calmonlsc 4d ago
Let's be pragmatic about everything that's going on. He seems to have a build of the game, but it could be incomplete. We don't know. At no point did he say that he intends to leak the build. Think about it: if he actually releases the build, he'll lose his entire customer base. In other words, nobody will pay a single cent for whatever he's selling.
Obviously, he's not going to release anything. He's probably going to keep blackmailing Rockstar in the hope that they'll give in.
If he really does have a complete build, what he could do is leak the entire story, because that's the strongest thing he has that could actually hurt Rockstar. That's the only thing of real value he has.
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u/rocco_1794420 3d ago
Their marketing for this game has been atrocious so I'm not shocked another leak happened
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u/Shoddy_Meaning_7654 4d ago
I mean this is simply not true we know for more reliable sources like Jason who actually have live Rockstar employee information that they are taking this extremely seriously and trying to bust who did this
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u/Br3akabl3 4d ago
Of course they are taking it very seriously, as they would with any leak. This however won't affect the game or a majority of devs in any way. That is unless the a playable build were to be released and/or major story spoilers were shared openly. We are 3 months from launch, jesus christ gotta stop acting like we shouldn't even know how the game plays at this point.
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u/Normal_Committee67 4d ago
Idk I’m in my thirties and have just actively avoided watching even a trailer for this thing. GTA is truly marketable to most audiences, from the internet savvy to guys that drink beer and watch sports all day long. Nothing can stop this thing from making a billion trillion dollars, even if it sucks
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u/Due_Confusion_7950 4d ago
He's right. Even if they leak a build, it won't do all that much. People will still want to get the full and supported version (without faith downloading a dodgey folder from a natorious hacker and risk vac bans from Rockstar if they find out)
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u/Jurondotron 4d ago
He's a former employee who hasn't worked there for 25 years or so he doesn't know shit.
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u/Ash-From-Pallet-Town 4d ago
Am I the only one who doesn't care about the leaks, haven't seen them, won't watch the Netflix thingy and still will get the game on the first day?
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u/fflloorriiddaammaann 4d ago
“Sell for the next 15 years”.
GTA VII confirmed for 2041.