Take-Two Stock Drops After GTA VI Leaks Spook Investors

As Rockstar Games took to social media to confirm that a hacker had indeed leaked in-development materials from GTA VI over the weekend, its parent company Take-Two Interactive’s stock prices slumped by more than 6 per cent in pre-market trading.

In an effort to staunch the financial bleeding, Take-Two confirmed in a statement to Reuters that it did not expect the leaks to affect the game’s development. It expanded on this slightly in a further statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, as noted by Gamespot, explaining the situation.

“Rockstar Games recently experienced a network intrusion in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from its systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto,” reads the SEC statement. “Current Rockstar Games services are unaffected. We have already taken steps to isolate and contain this incident. Work on the game will continue as planned. At this time, Rockstar Games does not anticipate any disruption to its current services nor any long-term effect on its development timelines as a result of this incident.”

News of the hack, and the scale of the materials leaked online, had created fears among investors that the game’s development could be delayed while Rockstar hunted down the hacker. Others were spooked by the hacker’s insistence that they have source code for both GTA V and GTA VI in their possession. Were the hacker’s claims true, and if they were to leak the source code for either game online, it wouldn’t merely be catastrophic for Rockstar, it would shake the entire games industry to its core.

“If the source code leaks, it could necessitate significant changes under the hood of the game to ensure its stability, and the server integrity of GTA VI Online once it launches,” Jefferies analyst Andrew Uerkwitz told Reuters.

At the time of writing, Take-Two stock was experiencing a small rebound from last night’s drop on the back of Rockstar’s public statements and assurances.

The hacker claims they are also responsible for a significant data breach at Uber only last week, and has been busily messaging industry insiders hoping to “negotiate a deal” with Take-Two. Various impersonators have popped up overnight in an attempt to turn a quick buck on the situation.