"Using illegal means to make a point is unacceptable to us"

As you might have seen, there was another alleged GTA 6 leak yesterday, with apparent footage of Rockstar's crime sandbox in action spread across the net and in many cases swiftly hit with DMCA takedowns. The group seemingly behind the leakage this time have claimed that their motivations have to do with ranging against anti-consumer practices by publishers, prompting the Stop Killing Games campaign to step in and issue a statement condemning and distancing themselves from the hack.

If you're out of the loop, the hackers are called Cyberleek and published a manifesto after doing their leakage. In it, they reportedly raged against digital preorders, singleplayer DLC which is already part of the base game but gated off, and called for singleplayer games to come with an "offline fallback state" so they can keep going if servers are switched off. The hackerfolk claim to be fighting back against this bad corporate behaviour via a secret project. They've also used the leak to push cryptocurrency in the form of a memecoin, something that definitely doesn't immediately cast serious doubt over their stated benevolent intentions.

Given Cyberleek's manifesto touches on a number of similar points to those the Stop Killing Games campaign have been pushing to have addressed via new laws aimed at game publishers, it's no surprise they've felt the need to distance themselves and their cause from the hackers.

"Do not send these people your money, no matter how much sympathy you may feel for their actions," Stop Killing Games wrote in a statement posted to social media. "This is illegal, and frankly, we feel for everyone at Rockstar having to go through this ordeal again, especially just over a week before Rockstar’s own official 'Extended Look' premieres. Using illegal means to make a point is unacceptable to us and does nothing to protect our right to keep using what we paid for. No matter how strongly you disagree with the decisions of upper management at these companies, there are still thousands of developers who worked hard on this project — and they’re the ones being hit the hardest."

A statement on the current GTA 6 Footage leak situation

Footage from GTA 6 has leaked, and a group of hackers, whom we will deliberately not name here, to avoid giving them further attention, claims responsibility. The footage itself appears to be genuine: Take-Two has already… pic.twitter.com/0rxQFXpdV2

— Stop Killing Games Official (@StopKilingGames) August 19, 2026

"Channel that frustration into something constructive instead," they continued. "This kind of act is destructive and helps no one, worse, it risks tarnishing the reputation of our communities and our chances to make change. History isn’t on the leaker’s side either: the last person who did this to Rockstar, back in 2022, ended up with an indefinite hospital order. This isn’t a cause worth risking your money or your future on (We seriously doubt that the hack was seriously for that reason)."

As with that last GTA 6 hack SKG cited, odds are this one will benefit nobody in the long run. People might see that GTA 6 does indeed look like a sixth GTA game slightly earlier than they otherwise would have. Rockstar and parent company Take-Two will take whatever action they deem suitable against the hackers. Devs working on GTA 6 will have to endure extra stress in the run up to release. The hackers, on the very slim chance their pro-consumer ideals turn out not to be trolling or hot air, probably won't see any success in threatening publishers into changing course. The only people who benefit will likely be the lawyers who end up hired to oversee whatever legal action comes out of this. Honestly, even the world's lawyers are probably sick of GTA 6 leak drama at this point.

Hopefully the legal efforts of Stop Killing Games to achieve their goals aren't hampered. If you're looking for ways to genuinely help fight back against big corporate videogames, the staff Rockstar abruptly fired last year have asked supporters to buy IWGB union merch to aid in financing their legal battle against the company, whom the union have accused of union busting. Rockstar, meanwhile, have insisted the the firings were due to "confidential information" being leaked via "a public forum".