Over the weekend, a very small amount of animated footage widely believed to be from GTA 6 was featured in a demo reel by a Rockstar employee, which highlighted their work for the company.
The Rockstar footage itself appeared to come from animator Benjamin Chue and was pretty minimal in the grand scheme of GTA 6 things. However, along with clips from the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2, there was also a short montage of incomplete work showing a character taking a bike out from a rental kiosk, and then riding it.
The background from this footage was entirely grey, and the bike itself, which was yellow, also looked to be in the early stages of animation. On its frame, the word LomBike could be seen, likely a play on the real-world micromobility company Lime, and its own LimeBike rental. This trend would, of course, follow earlier GTA 6 leaks. Back in September, a number of leaked in-game websites and apps appeared to parody the likes of Uber and WhatsApp.
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Another two incomplete clips featured within the demo reel showed a female character – which was likely one of GTA6’s dual protagonists Lucia– with a pickup truck. In the first snippet, the character could be seen sitting on the back of the truck before swinging her legs around to jump out. In the second clip, the same character started off on the roof of the truck, before she jumped into the boot, and then onto the road beside the vehicle.
And, that’s it. So, what’s the big deal? Really, the footage doesn’t show us anything that major. However, the fact that the footage was once available online and has since been removed has garnered attention from the GTA 6 community. You see, in removing the footage from the internet, developer Rockstar has essentially confirmed it was a legitimate leak from its upcoming game, rather unlike the AI efforts that have been making the rounds recently.
One of these supposed ‘leaks’, for example, showed a character meant to be GTA 6’s Lucia making her way around Vice City. Another AI ‘leak’ showed Lucia getting up and out of a pool, before cutting to scenes in a bar. All of this sloppy AI footage is still available online, and is clearly no threat to Rockstar.
Chue’s footage, meanwhile, has been removed from Vimeo where it was initially hosted. If you try and find it on that platform now, you will be met with the message: “Sorry, we couldn’t find that page”.
Image credit: Rockstar
Along with leaks and GTA 6 game delays, developer Rockstar is currently making additional headlines following the firing of staff members in a move seen by many as ‘union busting’. Last month, over 200 employees from Rockstar North signed a letter to management, in which they condemned its actions. Rockstar’s controversial dismissal of its employees has since been brought up in UK Parliament, with Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine urging “Ministers to support workers who have lost their jobs, and stop this from happening again”.
More recently, a report suggested former Rockstar Games staff were fired due to internal company messages being discussed on a Discord server shared privately between staff and union workers.