GTA 6 Leak Investigation Advances as Take-Two Seeks Second Discord Subpoena
The withdrawal of the YouTube subpoena and the narrowed Discord request indicate Take-Two has already identified at least one new user, shifting the investigation from broad platform sweeps to specific targets.
Key Facts
- Take-Two filed a second DMCA subpoena against Discord on August 28, 2026, with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
- The second subpoena targets one additional Discord user and one previously identified user.
- Take-Two withdrew its DMCA subpoena against Google's YouTube after a federal judge rejected the initial request.
- The leaker, CyberLeek, began sharing GTA 6 gameplay footage and map images around August 18, 2026.
- Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled for release on November 19, 2026, for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Reporting from 2 sources: Automaton, GIGAZINE.
Take-Two Interactive has made progress in identifying the person who leaked Grand Theft Auto VI gameplay footage in mid-August. On August 28, the company filed a second DMCA subpoena against Discord with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The new request is more targeted than the first, focusing on one additional Discord user and one previously identified user. Take-Two also asked the court to keep the subpoena under seal, arguing that public disclosure could lead to evidence tampering and benefit the alleged infringer. The court has not yet ruled on the sealing request, and the subpoena has not been issued. Separately, Take-Two withdrew its DMCA subpoena against Google's YouTube, which a federal judge had rejected for lacking detail on how three accounts related to the leaked videos. The leaker, who went by CyberLeek, posted gameplay footage and map images around August 18, and reportedly embedded a watermark for a memecoin, $CYBERLEEK, in the footage. Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled for release on November 19, 2026, for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
- Take-Two filed the first pair of DMCA subpoenas against Microsoft and Discord on August 20, then added X and Google the next day.
- The first Discord request sought the leaker's name plus MachineGuid and MSA device identifiers, registration and last login IP addresses, phone numbers, linked Google and Xbox connection info, and OneDrive content for all accounts that communicated on the identified server.
- Discord marketing chief Ryan Rigney said on X: "Discord has not yet received a subpoena from Take Two. When we do, we will evaluate its validity and scope before responding." No issuance record by the court clerk has been confirmed.
- CoinDesk reported the leaker embedded a watermark for the memecoin $CYBERLEEK with the text "the higher the market cap, the more leaks," pushing its market cap to about $25 million (roughly 4 billion yen).
- Tokens held were sold hours before the official GTA 6 gameplay reveal, yielding an estimated profit of $125,000 (about 20 million yen).
- Rockstar Games said on its official X account that the leak was heartbreaking and that it did not want the game revealed that way to users who had waited so long.
- On August 28, the same day as the second Discord subpoena, Rockstar released an official trailer over 26 minutes long.
- GTA 6 is set in the fictional U.S. state of Leonida, which includes Vice City from "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," and is described as the series' largest scale and immersion to date.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.