UPDATE: Almost exactly when I hit the publish button, more leaks were dropped.

The new footage is interesting because during a sequence where Jason is driving around, we can hear Sports Car by Tate McRae playing, a song that was released in January of 2025. We can now say with some confidence that at least some of the footage is coming from a build later than that.

Other details are that we see Jason with a taser. When he nears a car, there are options for smashing the window or cloning the key. Fuel levels pop up again, too. There’s a way to surrender to the police, and to “tag” them.

The footage ends in a cutscene where Jason chats to a character called Cal.

ORIGINAL STORY: Ah, shit. Here we go again.

Grand Theft Auto 6 has suffered what appears to be another substantial leak, with gameplay footage and images claiming to show the full map of Leonida spreading across the internet ahead of Rockstar’s big official showcase next week. Worse still, there’s believed to be even more leaks coming today.

Rockstar and Take-Two have yet to come out and say, “Yep, that’s GTA 6,” but the material certainly appears genuine. More convincingly, multiple uploads have already been slapped with copyright takedowns, while copies hosted elsewhere have also started disappearing. Copyright strikes aren’t technically confirmation, but Rockstar desperately trying to scrub GTA 6 footage from the internet is fairly convincing.

Before we start digging through everything people have spotted, though, there’s a very important caveat: this footage appears to be old.

Reasonably reliable insider NateTheHate says the leaked gameplay is more than a year old, meaning we’re potentially looking at GTA 6 as it existed sometime in 2024 or the first half of 2025 rather than anything resembling the current build. Some screenshots allegedly originating from the people behind the leak claim the footage actually dates back to 2023.

You might also have seen people pointing toward the video’s metadata as evidence for that 2023 date, but that doesn’t really work. One of the leaked files was encoded using FFmpeg 6.1, which was released in November 2023. That only tells us the file couldn’t have been encoded in that particular format before then. It doesn’t tell us when the gameplay was recorded, and encoding the video stripped away metadata, which could have provided an actual recording date.

So yes, the footage could conceivably be approaching three years old, and the alleged leakers themselves apparently claim it is. But there’s currently no solid technical evidence proving that. “At least a year old” is the safer bet.

And that’s worth remembering when we’re staring at unfinished interfaces, slightly wonky animation work or mechanics which may no longer exist. This is potentially GTA 6 from a very different stage of development.

I don’t normally write in headers, but there’s quite a lot of ground to cover here, so I’ve broken it up for easier reading.

So Who The Hell Is Cyberleek?

This is where things get weird.

A person or group calling themselves CYBERLEEK has claimed responsibility for releasing the material and has wrapped the whole thing in what is essentially a manifesto for better digital consumer rights.

Their three “commandments” demand an end to digital pre-orders, an end to what they describe as fake single-player DLC — essentially content already included but locked behind an additional purchase — and the preservation of single-player content so that it remains playable even when online services disappear. The manifesto points towards cases such as Ubisoft shutting down The Crew as an example of the industry’s problems.

They aren’t happy about physical discs being killed off, either. As a reminder, GTA 6 will have a physical edition, but it’ll just be a code in a box.

Their intentions actually seem kind of decent, even if their method is highly illegal. Unfortunately, CYBERLEEK is also using all this attention to promote a meme coin on Solana, which it says will fund a mysterious “secret project” to fight corporations. The manifesto very specifically insists that this is “not a cash grab.” Which is exactly the sort of sentence that traditionally fills me with confidence whenever cryptocurrency is involved.

The group has threatened further leaks against Rockstar and other publishers unless companies change their ways, issue apologies and make restitution.

I’m also not entirely convinced leaking GTA 6 is going to hurt Rockstar quite as much as CYBERLEEK apparently hopes. This is the most anticipated game on the planet. Judging by the response online, they’ve mostly succeeded in giving Rockstar several million dollars worth of free marketing and making everyone stare even harder at GTA 6.

Also, GTA 6 has apparently already raked in half-a-billion dollars through pre-orders.

The timing is certainly shitty for Rockstar, though. Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look is scheduled for August 27, meaning this leak arrived just over a week before Rockstar was finally preparing to show the game off properly. GTA 6 itself is due to launch on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Rockstar is already playing whack-a-mole with the leaked material, so I’m not going to bother embedding or directly linking to any of it here. There’s a decent chance anything I link will be a smoking crater by the time you click it anyway.

Instead, let’s talk about what was actually shown.

Jason Can Shoot Some Hoops

The first substantial clip is wonderfully mundane.

Rather than shooting a police helicopter out of the sky while screaming obscenities, Jason wanders around what appears to be his somewhat rundown waterfront home before grabbing a basketball and shooting some hoops.

The game displays a basic tutorial for aiming and throwing, while making a successful shot gives Jason +2% Focus.

That’s interesting because it suggests GTA 6 could borrow more heavily from Red Dead Redemption 2’s character progression, where simply performing activities gradually improved Arthur’s abilities. GTA: San Andreas had elements of this, too, like making CJ go to the gym or get better at riding a bike.

Exactly what Focus does isn’t clear. The obvious guess is that it’s connected to GTA’s traditional slow-motion aiming abilities, but that’s purely speculation for now.

The important part is that playing basketball appears to actually improve Jason rather than just existing as a throwaway minigame.

Six Wanted Stars Are Back

The second major clip gets considerably more GTA.

Jason is driving when he gets into an altercation with a delivery driver. Things escalate, because of course they do, resulting in Jason fighting the NPC, eventually beating him with a wrench and attracting police attention.

And that’s where we get one of the biggest little details from the leak: there are six spaces on the wanted meter. GTA V famously reduced the maximum wanted level from the series’ traditional six stars to five, so it looks like GTA 6 may finally be restoring the full six-star response. Apparently murdering a delivery driver with a wrench only earns Jason two of them, so Leonida’s police are presumably keeping some fairly serious shit in reserve.

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The police system itself also appears considerably more detailed.

Alongside the wanted level are icons seemingly representing what the police know about Jason. One appears to represent his clothing, another his physical appearance, and another his vehicle. The obvious implication is that swapping clothes or ditching a recognised car could help shake the police rather than escaping simply being a matter of hiding behind a shed until everyone forgets you exist. That’s a cool idea.

There’s also a blue detection indicator which seems to show how close nearby officers are to actually spotting Jason, suggesting stealth may play a larger role when escaping law enforcement.

Combat, Stamina And A Possible Morality System

The fight itself provides a couple of other interesting details. A stamina bar appears while Jason is throwing punches and drains as the fight continues. By the time he starts laying into the downed driver with a wrench it reaches zero, accompanied by a vignette around the screen. Exactly what running out of stamina does isn’t shown, but it certainly looks like physical actions are being governed by a more substantial stamina system.

There’s also something which has sparked plenty of discussion: once Jason begins beating the already unconscious NPC, a small devil-like icon with a minus symbol appears.

That immediately has people wondering whether GTA 6 contains something similar to Red Dead Redemption 2’s Honor system. Maybe senseless violence negatively affects Jason and Lucia’s morality, reputation or relationship with the world?

Cars Might Need Fuel — And Could Store Your Weapons

Vehicles are another potentially big one. The leaked HUD appears to contain fuel and engine indicators, raising the possibility that GTA 6 will actually track petrol and vehicle condition.

Before anyone begins having nightmares about running out of fuel halfway through a six-star chase, it’s impossible to know exactly how these systems work. A fuel icon existing doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll regularly be pulling into a petrol station and spending three minutes wondering why the pump won’t recognise your Tesco Clubcard.

The car shows options for Loadout and Storage, with the latter displaying “0/4”. That’s another piece of evidence supporting the long-running theory that GTA 6 will limit how much equipment Jason and Lucia can physically carry, with vehicles acting as mobile storage for additional weapons and gear.

That would again bring GTA closer to Red Dead Redemption 2, where Arthur couldn’t simply conceal seventeen rifles, four shotguns and an RPG somewhere inside his trousers.

And Then There’s The Map

Possibly the biggest part of the leak isn’t gameplay at all.

CYBERLEEK also released images claiming to show the full map of Leonida, although I’d put an extra-large asterisk beside this one. Unlike the gameplay footage, verifying a map image is much harder, especially when GTA fans have spent years constructing remarkably detailed versions themselves from trailers, screenshots and previous leaks.

In fact, the leaked map apparently lines up surprisingly well with existing community reconstruction projects. That’s impressive for the people making those maps, but it also means similarity alone can’t authenticate the leak. With that said, since the footage seems to be genuine, it’s extremely likely that the map is as well.

Assuming it’s genuine, Leonida appears to be divided into five counties:

Lummox County sits across the north, Kelly County to the west, Leonard County in the east, Vice-Dale County surrounds Vice City, and Mariana County covers much of the southern wetlands and island region.

What grabbed my attention is just how little of Leonida appears to actually be Vice City. I was expecting…well, more.

The map shows huge stretches of countryside, wetlands, road networks and islands surrounding the main metropolitan area. There’s a major airport southwest of Vice City, another airfield sitting on an offshore island, and an enormous chain of islands stretching south through the Keys.

Close-up images also contain names including Catalan Bay, Catalan Key, Gloriana Key, Tequesta Retreat and Dalton Island. Gloriana Key looks heavily industrial, complete with storage tanks and service roads, while Dalton Island appears far more residential with waterfront properties, lakes and a marina.

Other interesting details have been spotted too. The map appears to contain several small racetracks, Jason’s home can seemingly be located on one of the southern islands, and an icon showing a “J” seems to reveal Jason’s position while the player is controlling Lucia. If that’s correct, GTA 6 could let you see where your other protagonist is wandering around the world without switching characters first.

There’s also an airport or airfield at the far end of the Keys which has prompted speculation about a possible military base, although right now that’s just speculation rather than anything clearly labelled on the map. I’m having flashbacks to loading up San Andreas and heading straight to the military base to get myself equipped with a tank. Good times.

Take All Of This With One Giant Grain Of Salt

There’s a surprising amount to unpack from just a handful of videos and map images, and the copyright takedowns make the gameplay footage particularly difficult to dismiss.

But the age of the material matters.

If NateTheHate is correct, we’re looking at GTA 6 from at least a year ago. If CYBERLEEK’s alleged claims about 2023 are accurate, we’re looking at something potentially approaching three years old. Either way, Rockstar has had a huge amount of development time since these clips were captured.

Some of these systems may have been completely redesigned. Some could have disappeared. Others might now be considerably more elaborate than what we’re seeing here.

Thankfully, we won’t have long to find out what GTA 6 actually looks like today. Rockstar’s official Extended Look arrives on August 27, when it will be exclusive to Netflix for a whole six hours. Truly, we live in a golden age. That was sarcasm.