GTA 6 Trailer Leak Was 'Disappointing' but Did Not Hurt the Team, Says Take-Two CEO: Report

Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to release some time in 2025, with developer Rockstar Games announcing the much-awaited title via a trailer late last year. The GTA 6 trailer, which has 174 million views on YouTube at the time of writing, came out December 5, showing off shiny visuals, a dense and detailed Vice City, and a Tom Petty song that has since experienced a 37,000 percent increase in its Spotify streams. But hours before Rockstar was forced to actually put out the trailer, it leaked on the Internet. Now, the CEO of Rockstar owner Take-Two has said that the leak was “disappointing.”

Ahead of the company's quarterly earnings call Thursday, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told IGN that the GTA 6 trailer leak was “disappointing,” but it did not hurt the team at Rockstar and its parent company, according to him.

"In terms of the leak, that's always disappointing for the team, but ultimately, I don't think it hurt us,” Zelnick said. The Take-Two chief added that the team was gratified when the official trailer “broke the internet.”

Zelnick's statement echoed his comments from February last year, when he addressed a separate leak that revealed in-development footage from GTA 6. At the time, Zelnick had claimed that the leak was an “emotional matter” rather than a business one. "We take leaks very seriously indeed and they disappoint all of us, it's really frustrating and upsetting to the team," he had said. "However, as a business matter we're not affected. But as a personal matter and an emotional matter, our teams are affected."

GTA 6's development has been fraught with speculation and leaks, the biggest of which was a hack that released over 90 videos of in-development gameplay in September 2022, revealing the game's two protagonists and its Vice City setting. These details were finally confirmed when Rockstar released the GTA 6 trailer, featuring two playable characters — Lucia and her partner (presumed to be Jason) — and a Miami-inspired Leonida as the location of the game. Posting the official trailer on X, Rockstar had said, “Our trailer has leaked so please watch the real thing on YouTube.”

Take-Two, meanwhile, reported its third quarter earnings for fiscal year 2024, ended December 31, 2023, on Thursday. The company's net bookings for the quarter came in at $1.3 billion (roughly Rs. 11,126 crore) on the back of strong performance of Grand Theft Auto 5, GTA Online, and the Red Dead Redemption series. Take-Two, however, forecast its fourth-quarter bookings below market expectations and cut down its annual estimates for the year. Additionally, the company also revised its revenue projections for fiscal year 2025 (ended March 31, 2025), suggesting that GTA 6 may not release by March next year. Analysts have said that the release of game would represent a noticeable boost in the company's corresponding quarterly earnings. The game will likely launch in fiscal year 2026, in the second half of next year.