Investigation

The Teenager Who Hacked Rockstar Games

In September 2022, about 90 clips of an unfinished Grand Theft Auto VI appeared on a fan forum. The person a jury later found responsible was a teenager. This is what the public record says happened, and what it does not.

By GTA VI Radio editors4 min read

A wide view of the Edinburgh skyline, the city where Rockstar North is based
Edinburgh, home of Rockstar North, the studio whose work was leaked. Photo: Strevo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Facts come from the named sources below. Where a claim is only reported, or rests on one person's account, we say so.

The weekend GTA 6 leaked

On September 18, 2022, a user calling themselves "teapotuberhacker" posted around 90 clips of GTA VI development footage to the GTAForums fan site. Together they ran for roughly 50 minutes. They showed unfinished gameplay, placeholder art and debug tools, and the poster also threatened to release source code.

The next day, September 19, Rockstar confirmed it had suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorised third party took confidential information, including early footage of the next Grand Theft Auto. It said it was extremely disappointed that its work had been seen this way, and that it did not expect disruption to its live services or a long-term effect on the development of its projects.

~90clips of unfinished GTA VI footage, posted on September 18, 2022

How Take-Two responded

Take-Two told investors it had taken steps to isolate and contain the incident and that ongoing projects and online services were unaffected. It also issued takedown notices to GTA fan communities that were hosting the footage. CNBC reported that Take-Two's share price moved only slightly, after an early fall in premarket trading.

The leak was widely linked at the time to Lapsus$, a group that had already targeted large technology companies.

Who was Arion Kurtaj?

Arion Kurtaj, who used the online handle "White", was a teenager arrested in Oxford in March 2022 as part of a City of London Police investigation into Lapsus$. Seven people aged 16 to 21 were arrested that month. Kurtaj was charged in April 2022, and was on bail when the Rockstar intrusion took place.

Court coverage reported that he carried out the intrusion from a hotel, using a Fire Stick, a hotel television and a phone after his laptop had been taken. That detail came out during the 2023 case. It is reported evidence, not something Rockstar has confirmed.

Kurtaj has a diagnosed autism spectrum condition. We do not speculate about his health, and we do not name the co-defendant, who was a minor.

What the court decided

In August 2023, after a seven-week trial in London, a jury found that Kurtaj had carried out the hacks. He had been judged unfit to stand trial in the usual way, so the jury was asked only whether he did the acts, not whether he was guilty of crimes. His 17-year-old co-defendant was convicted.

On December 21, 2023, Kurtaj was ordered to be held in a secure hospital with no fixed end date. Reports cited his autism and the risk that he would reoffend. The co-defendant received an 18-month Youth Rehabilitation Order. Outlets disagree on some court details, such as the name of the court, so we leave those out.

The second leak: Trailer 1

The 2022 hack is not the only reason fans saw GTA VI early. On December 4, 2023, a version of the first trailer leaked online. Rockstar responded by publishing the trailer that evening, about fifteen hours before its planned release, and said in its post that it had leaked. That was a separate incident from the 2022 intrusion.

In late December 2023, more material from the 2022 breach was also reported to have surfaced, including source code for GTA V and GTA VI. No outlet we found tied that to Kurtaj personally, so we do not attribute it to him.

What it changed

The practical effect was that fans saw a rough build years before release, with placeholder assets that were never meant to be judged. Rockstar and Take-Two said ongoing projects were not affected, and GTA VI's later delays were announced separately. The game is now due on November 19, 2026.

Security writers drew the usual lessons from the group's methods, which relied heavily on social engineering, but claims about exactly which systems were accessed have never been confirmed, so we do not repeat them.

The Rockstar North headquarters building in Edinburgh, Scotland
Rockstar North's headquarters in Edinburgh, where Grand Theft Auto is developed. Photo: Thomas Nugent, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What this post does not cover

We have not covered any later legal proceedings, and we do not link to leaked material. If you want the original reporting, the sources below are the place to start.

Quick answers

Who hacked Rockstar Games?
A jury found in August 2023 that Arion Kurtaj, then a teenager and a Lapsus$ member, carried out the 2022 hack. He was judged unfit to stand trial in the usual way.
What was leaked in the GTA 6 hack?
About 90 videos of early GTA VI development footage. Source code for GTA V and GTA VI was reported to have surfaced later.
Did the leak delay GTA 6?
Rockstar and Take-Two said ongoing projects were not affected. GTA VI's later delays were announced separately, and the release date is now November 19, 2026.
Why did Rockstar release Trailer 1 early?
A version of it leaked on December 4, 2023, so Rockstar published it that evening, roughly fifteen hours ahead of schedule.

Sources

GTA VI Radio is an unofficial fan site and is not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive. Game titles and characters belong to their owners.

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