Halo, Baldur's Gate 3, and Xbox devs decry the GTA 6 trailer leak: "When something leaks, it just becomes f***ing noise"
Dec. 5, 2023“Don’t be a leaker”
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We’ve finally got our first official look at the next Grand Theft Auto game, though one sour note hung over what should have been a more joyous occasion. TheGTA 6trailerleaked before Rockstar intended to show it, so we got it early.
Having something you worked on leaked to the public before you get to do the reveal resonates with the broader games industry because everyone goes through it. Sometimes, it’s a news scope; other times, it comes down to one person posting a rough cut of something online for their five seconds of fame. Regardless, though, many developers agree it’s a bummer.
“The thing I hate most about leaks is that it takes the voice away from the developer,” Larian Studios director of publishing Michael Dousesays. “What we should all be looking for is dialogue between devs and communities. But when something leaks, it just becomes fucking noise. It isn’t what you want.”
Xbox senior social media manager Josh Steinadds; “While the cat and mouse game of leak/not leaked is fun to follow on social. Let me tell you it sucks from the inside.”
“Teams work literally hours, days, weeks, nights, to build the best rollout to capture the attention of social media and go loud and proud for the community. Leaks utterly ruin that and waste a ton of work and also risk flat-spinning your whole marketing message.”
“There’s going to be a lot of people missing time with family, friends, loved ones tonight [because] they have to work late hours to accommodate for a leak. As someone who went through it myself, it sucks the fun outta marketing and I wish it never happened.”
That’s very much the gist of the conversation right now, with many saying that it’s a shame that the event-like atmosphere likely to come with a GTA 6 trailer reveal was somewhat spoiled. Halo senior community manager John Junyszek puts itsimply: “Don’t be a leaker.”
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It’s something thatRockstar devs has commented upon themselves. In a now-deleted Tweet, one developer says they were “hoping to watch this for the first time tomorrow along with my fellow teammates and coworkers” before saying, “I feel we deserved that moment.” Another, taking a more humorous approach, rounded things off with a popular community meme.
Here are12 things you may have missed from the GTA 6 trailer. How many did you see?
Iain joins the GamesRadar team as Deputy News Editor following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When not helping Ali run the news team, he can be found digging into communities for stories – the sillier the better. When he isn’t pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new hat, you’ll find him amassing an army of Pokemon plushies.
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