GTA 6 Leak Forced Rockstar to Spend $5 Million to Recover Damages After 18-Year-Old Hacker Stole Game Data From a Hotel Room

The 18-year-old hacker who shocked the gaming industry last year by stealing GTA 6 data and leaking it online has been sentenced to life. But more than that, it seems like Rockstar Games has really suffered in dealing with the entire situation. As revealed recently, the studio will have to spend big to fix the damage done.

For the uninitiated, Arion Kurtaj is the teenage hacker behind the biggest leak of 2022 that happened in September. He had managed to hack the files of GTA 6 by breaching Rockstar’s online security. All he had to use was an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV, and a mobile phone.

$5 million spent by Rockstar Games to recover from GTA 6 leaked gameplay clips

During the recent court hearing, the Take-Two owned developer revealed the GTA 6 leak cost the devs $5 million. The studio also had to manage the problem by spending thousands of hours with the staff members.

Now what’s interesting to note is the argument made by Arion Kurtaj’s lawyers. They tried to prove that since GTA 6 trailer has been a success – with over 155 million views so far on YouTube – despite the big leak from 2022. It shows that there’s been no harm done to Rockstar Games. And that this point should be considered before giving a final judgment.

However, the Judge had her own point to make things very clear. She revealed that there were actual victims who were affected by his other crimes and hacking activities committed previously. Plus, there were other companies as well attacked by him while working with the Lapsus$ group, as reported by news website BBC.

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Speaking more about the recent hearing, there was another member from Lapsus$ who was involved in the GTA 6 leak. Since he’s a minor, his name was not disclosed. This 17-year-old teenager had worked with Arion, including more Lapsus$ members, to launch attacks on tech giants like Nvidia and BT/EE. They had demanded $4 million from them, but the ransom amount was not paid by affected parties.

The main reason Arion’s been sentenced for an indefinite period is because of his desire to keep committing crimes. The judge really considered this point before giving the verdict. For now, he will be kept in a secure hospital for life unless he’s no longer considered a danger by the doctors. They had previously deemed him unfit to stand trial due to the autism condition.

It will be interesting to see how things transpire moving forward. Especially when it comes to Rockstar Games’ management system. A year after the massive leak, the studio failed to prevent an early trailer leak of GTA 6 on December 5. Due to the unfortunate incident, it had to release the trailer ahead of the planned countdown. Hopefully, the studio will work on enhancing its security to a solid level before the next trailer comes out.

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