Hello, Insiders. On August 22, I penned an article concerning a threat made by the CYBERLEEK entity to Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive, which suggested they’d release a full build of Grand Theft Auto 6 if the organizations refused to relent in their legal pursuit of the group.
Unfortunately, this article was based on an image and discourse that have since been proven false, manufactured and circulated online by one of the many people copying or aping what CYBERLEEK is doing, for whatever reason. As you can likely understand, this means that the original report has been scrapped and publicly debunked.
However, in recent hours, a creator by the name of MoistCr1TiKaL uploaded a video talking at length about the article and the content behind it, going so far as to use a screenshot of the article for the video’s thumbnail.
While MoistCr1TiKaL’s video is mostly logical and based on everything we’ve learned so far about the situation, it too is representative of false content, spurned by the article I wrote on August 22. This has obviously served to propagate the incorrect report even further through social circles.
We find ourselves in a troubling time right now. We’re at the precipice of seeing one of the most important video games ever made leaked in full, regardless of whether the report I wrote was false or not. There’s no confirmation either way that CYBERLEEK does possess a full build of GTA 6, nor is there any reason to assume the group, if they’re as sophisticated as they seem, doesn’t have a ‘dead man’s switch’ that could do exactly what the fake image suggested.
For reference, it stressed that if Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive refuse to stop ‘hunting them’, they’d automatically release the build to ‘millions of gamers’ worldwide.
Understandably, this very situation is why more due diligence must be taken to prevent false reporting. It can often be extremely difficult to verify the authenticity of content in a world where fake reports are so easily manufactured, and as journalists, we must hold ourselves to higher standards and expectations.
The original report should not be considered a failing of Insider Gaming, but rather of myself. It was a rare blunder that has since been removed and, as this article explains, redacted, both across social media and here, on the front page of Insider Gaming. I will and have learned from this mistake.
As a team, Insider Gaming prides itself on being one of the most trusted and reputable sources in the gaming space. In the last four years, we’ve grown to be a reliable authority in this business, and our original reporting has been replicated by the heaviest hitters in the industry time and again.
This situation is nothing if not a pure representation of the dangers of knee-jerk reporting. Even when you delete the coverage, it can have a ripple effect that reveals ramifications that run much further than the front page or the news feed of a single website.
Again, I apologize for this slip and can only promise that it won’t happen again. To err is human.
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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