Reason Rockstar dropped GTA 6 trailer a day early

Rockstar's plans were disrupted

After years of development, and more than a decade after the release of Grand Theft Auto V, the producer of the franchise have finally released the first footage of the much-anticipated GTA VI.

Although it doesn’t feature any gameplay, we do get to see some stunning shots of Vice City, some pretty impressive-looking graphics and an introduction to the game’s female lead character Lucia.

It also reveals that we won’t be getting our hands on the game until 2025.

But Rockstar actually released the trailer some 15 hours earlier than they had planned.

Last month, the company announced they would be releasing the teaser in early December to mark their 25th anniversary.

Then last week, they confirmed the trailer would be arriving on Tuesday, December 5 at 9am in the US, so 2pm here in the UK.

But yesterday (December 4), the trailer was leaked on social media. Even though the footage was quickly taken down, the cat was out the bag.

So, Rockstar decided there was no point hanging around, and just released the trailer themselves.

In a post on X, the company wrote: "Our trailer has leaked so please watch the real thing on YouTube."

The unplanned early release of the trailer doesn't seem to have affected its performance much though, with the video having already smashed a YouTube world record.

Eurogamer reports that the leaks appeared to come from TikTok and they claimed to show a few seconds of GTA 6.

And some reports even claimed that it was the son of a Rockstar Games employee who leaked the trailer.

This isn't the first time that Rockstar has been the victim of leaks about GTA 6.

Back in 2021, the studio was a the victim of a huge hack which saw more than 90 videos and images of the long-awaited game leaked online.

Since then, accounts from across the internet have claimed to share leaks and footage from the game, about everything from the size of the map to weather systems.

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