I still believe the theory that the leaks are part of Rockstar's own advertising campaign, if there a company that know they can milk their own customers aside from Nintendo, it's Rockstar.
this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
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Why should it be an advertising campaign? Using a made-up name, filling videos with watermarks and pushing a crypto meme coin?
I don't even see how this could be something good for them. They are going to officially show it in a week and I don't think they need more hype than that they already have.
These are just people who are trying to make money with crypto.
The very first GTA was promoted through "outrage" that they stirred up themselves. I trust their marketing department about as far as I can throw them.
But it turns out you are actually Andre the Giant, so you can throw them very far and thus trust them a lot.
Andre the Giant has been dead for over 30 years so I'm not sure he can throw as far as you're expecting.
Well that's what you think, he's actually just been in hiding in a cave in northern Kazakhstan to escape all that public attention. And now he's on Lemmy because he did actually get a little lonely.
My mind is a funny place.
It was a very different company during first GTA.
They still market with outrage, but not like this I'm pretty certain. The Netflix thing I believe is on purpose to generate outrage. They had people posting all over complaining that it's behind a paywall. You don't get marketing that good, even if you pay for it. The leak though? It doesn't feel like something they'd do.
The issue with this theory is the crypto scam, but aside from that I would guess that this way they can keep their players engaged with the game since they don't like sharing anything at all and gamers want everything as soon as possible
Consider also reputation impact by having your biggest game leaked TWICE
I'd agree if it weren't for the cryptoslop memecoin thing attached to it.
Agree, this is the only weak point of this theory
Nah, the world has gone too conspiracy brained.
Orrrrr it is a really strong one... Because you might think they would never use a coin so they use it anyway... 
A rather expensive if not straight up damaging ad campaign if we look at Rockstar‘s lukewarm stock. The crypto angle doesn‘t add up either.
Would be a bit over the line seeking American court orders if that was the case
I wouldn't put it past them.
That’s a massive legal risk. I don’t think it’s them.
Can you explain how? Who would prosecute this?
The shareholders likely would want an explanation.
IRS wouldn’t be too happy about the cryptocurrency stuff either.
They got subpoenas for other companies, that would be illegal if it was them all along
And companies never do illegal things
Also Bethesda. Skyrim has been released so many times since 2011.
HAHA! Jokes on them, I never intended to buy it!
The one thing making me slightly doubtful of it being a typical PR stunt is that the leaker has also been advertising their shit-ass memecoin crypto. Unless that crypto has some link to Rockstar, I don't think they're behind it.
It's real. Rockstar loves to release on consoles first so people buy it on console first to play it early and then on PC for better graphics and modding. Leak shows the PC version working just fine so the PC players are more likely to wait for that release.
Is this that company that fucks over its workers and union busted?
I wish the intentions of the leaks were because of how rockstar has been about the employees and unionizing but it’s just cynical shit with more cynical shit.
To be fair, at least one of the intentions is preservation of physical game media, so not completely all cynical shit.
Get rekt lmao, stay mad.
I mean of course it won’t. Netflix paid them a handsome some of money for that exclusivity and they are certainly contractually obligated to honor it
wait netflix paid THEM to run an ad?
You think Rockstar just decided to run their trailer on an exclusive platform, limiting its viewers for free?
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I heard (somewhere) that there pre-release copies of it instead some Flock cameras; just might have to investigate a number of them to find it. /s
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