GTA 6: Trailer for new game reveals release date and female protagonist after online leak

ITV News' Ian Woods has this report after keen video gamers celebrate the announcement of the latest instalment of GTA - featuring, for the first time, a female protagonist

The makers of Grand Theft Auto have said they are “extremely disappointed” after details of the next instalment in the series were leaked.

More than 90 clips of Grand Theft Auto VI, which is in the early stages of development, were leaked and circulated on social media over the weekend.

The footage was originally posted to the GTAForums website by user teapotuberhacker, who claimed to have downloaded the files from employee communications.

Among the collection of clips were examples of in-game combat, scenery and characters which suggest the game could include the series’ first female protagonist and be set in Vice City – a mock version of Miami and the setting of the Grand Theft Auto 2002 release.

The sixth installment in the Grand Theft Auto series will feature its first female protagonist, Lucia. Credit: Rockstar Games.

Rockstar Games on Monday confirmed “an unauthorised third party” had accessed and downloaded details of the Grand Theft Auto sequel.

A statement from the Rockstar Games team said: “We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorised third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto.

“At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to our live game services nor any long-term effect on the development of our ongoing projects.

“We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way. Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned and we remain as committed as ever to delivering an experience to you, our players, that truly exceeds your expectation.

“We will update everyone again soon and, of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready. We want to thank everyone for their ongoing support through this situation.”

Teapotuberhacker also said they could leak more data, including Grand Theft Auto 5 and 6 source codes and assets, as well as a Grand Theft Auto 6 testing build.

Soon after the initial post on GTAForums, Teapotuberhacker posted again inviting staff at Rockstar, or parent company Take Two, to contact them.

Grand Theft Auto is one of the most popular video games series ever created and has sold more than 380 million copies worldwide.

Listen to Unscripted, the ITV News Entertainment podcast...