Rockstar just can’t catch a break. GTA 6 gameplay footage leaked online this week, DMCA strikes rained down almost instantly, and then things got weirder when the leaker actually came forward with a manifesto. Yeah, a manifesto.

It started with a handful of clips hitting social media showing off exploration bits, a six-star wanted level, a new location nobody had seen, NPC interactions, loadout systems, car refuelling, the in-game phone, and how stamina works. Rough quality, sure, but Take-Two striking every single upload almost the moment it appeared told you all you needed to know about how real this was. One early clip showed Jason playing basketball outside his beachfront house, and it looked janky enough that people assumed AI fakery, right up until the takedowns started flying.

Who’s behind this GTA 6 chaos

Turns out the leaker didn’t want to stay anonymous. A group or person calling themselves CYBERLEEK claimed responsibility and dropped three “commandments” publishers need to follow: no digital-only preorders, no fake single-player DLC, and no gutting single-player content for monetisation. Their statement warned that Rockstar (and any other publisher who crosses these lines) needs to publicly apologise and commit to change, or the leaks keep coming. No quiet deals, no private settlements, just public pressure. Bold strategy, and a little unnerving if you’re a AAA publisher with skeletons in the digital storefront.

Wait, is this even new footage?

Here’s the twist that takes some heat off Rockstar. Metadata on the basketball clip shows it was encoded with an FFmpeg build from November 2023, which means the file itself couldn’t have existed before then, though the actual footage could be older still since encoding wipes out the original recording date. Leaker NateTheHate reckons the clips are over a year old and unrelated to the GTA 6 preview events currently running. Others on the GTA Forum pushed back, pointing out an old encoder just means old software touched the file, not that the gameplay itself is ancient.

Either way, whatever leaked is probably a fossil compared to what Rockstar’s actually sitting on now, especially with a Netflix GTA 6 showcase landing any day. Old footage or not, CYBERLEEK says they’re not done, and that should have every publisher checking their locks.