(UPDATE, August 31): Take-Two’s hunt for whoever is behind the GTA 6 leaks appears to be moving forward rather quickly.
As first spotted by TorrentFreak, Take-Two returned to court on August 28 seeking a second subpoena against Discord, just one week after the first was granted. In the new filing, Take-Two says its investigation is “rapidly evolving and ongoing,” and claims it has now identified one additional Discord user, obtained additional “identifying information” for a previously identified user, and gathered more information about the Discord servers named in the original subpoena. It is now asking for more targeted information connected to those accounts and servers.
Things get even more interesting because Take-Two is asking the court to keep the specific demands in this second subpoena under seal. The company argues that revealing exactly what it now knows could “tip off the alleged infringers,” potentially giving them time to delete or conceal evidence or take further steps to avoid being identified.
There is also a slightly odd wrinkle in the timeline. Discord publicly said on August 24 that it had not yet been served with a subpoena from Take-Two. Take-Two’s new filing, however, says the original August 21 subpoena was “promptly served on Discord.” TorrentFreak notes that the court docket does not appear to show the clerk formally issuing it in the usual way either, so exactly when Discord received it is a little unclear.
None of this means Take-Two has actually identified CyberLeek yet, and the public filings certainly don’t name the person behind the leaks. But the fact that the company is already narrowing its requests, has found another Discord user and is deliberately trying not to reveal how much it knows suggests the investigation is no longer just a very large fishing expedition.
(ORIGINAL STORY, 31 August)Look, the ongoing GTA 6 leak scandal has taken over the news cycle, and every other thing I write seems to be about it. But it’s hard to ignore the biggest current news story in gaming, so here we go: Take-Two, the publisher behind GTA 6, has officially filed DMCA subpoena requests seeking information from Microsoft and Discord to help track down the leaker/s.
Take-Two is requesting any files and documentation that might help identify Cyberleek, the individual or group who seems to have a playable build of GTA 6, or has someone on the inside supplying them with videos. These requests include access to Xbox accounts, user profiles and anything else potentially linked to Cyberleek.
Take-Two has asked for the data to be handed over by September 4.
Below is a snippet from the request to Microsoft, obtained by Kotaku.
“All identifying information associated with all user accounts that are/were members communicating with the Discord server(s) listed below during the time period from June 1, 2026 to present; and for those accounts, provide any associated device/telemetry records where one or more of the tool/file artifacts below were present on the system. For each returned account, provide: the account ID, registration email, registration and last-login IP addresses, phone number, linked connections (Google/Xbox/etc.), any associated device identifiers (MachineGuid/MSA), and content related to Grand Theft Auto (‘GTA’), Rockstar or Cyberleek from their OneDrive account.”
Microsoft and Discord cannot legally ignore this request, but may also not have to supply everything asked for. They can negotiate the scope, request more time, or ask the court to modify the subpoena if, for example, it is overly broad, unduly burdensome or seeks protected information.
At first, the leaker appeared to only have footage from the game, perhaps stolen off a server within Rockstar or leaked by an angry employee. But it became clearer that the leak was far bigger when they ended one video by spelling the word “leek” on a wall using a gun. The obvious assumption is that they have a playable version of the game.
Cyberleek claims to be doing all of this as a way of fighting back against practices it disagrees with, such as the cessation of physical discs, locking away DLC that’s already in the game, digital pre-orders and many other things. They state that they will do the same thing to other companies if things do not change.
At the same time, Cyberleek is running a memecoin cryptocurrency, which it claims will help fund their operation, including some mystery project. Understandably, there’s doubt surrounding this claim.
GTA 6 will be getting an extended look on August 27 via Netflix, before appearing on Youtube 6 hours later.
WGB 