Amid reports that Google employees used YouTube’s backend to spoil Nintendo announcements, it’s now believed that another investigation began following GTA 6’s leaked trailer.
The GTA 6 trailer set records on YouTube when it was unveiled, becoming the most-watched non-music video in the site’s history, but it could have been even more successful had it not been leaked.
One day before the trailer’s scheduled reveal on December 5, the video began to circulate on social media, promoting Rockstar to pull an emergency pivot and post it early.
This upset the devs at Rockstar greatly, who fumed that the leak robbed them of the reveal they “deserved.”
Now, seven months later, reports have emerged that Google employees were responsible for leaking Nintendo game announcements from 2013-2018… and it turns out they may have been behind the GTA 6 leak, too.
On May 30, Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson tweeted, “From what I can gather, YouTube has investigated employees breaching their contractual agreements on two different occasions in the past 18 months due to employees accessing content on the backend.”
From what I can gather, YouTube has investigated employees breaching their contractual agreements on two different occasions in the past 18 months due to employees accessing content on the backend. Following today (and presumably SGF), we'll see a third investigation fairly…
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) May 30, 2024
Following this, on June 3, he published a report indicating that he had heard of two separate occasions where Google carried out an internal investigation, with one coming just after the GTA VI leak.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
While he said that the timing could just be a coincidence, he noted that many industry leaks have been due to unlisted, scheduled, or private YouTube videos. He also claims that multiple people likely faced disciplinary action.
The first incident allegedly came when YouTuber KSI had a “Try not to make me laugh” series where users would send him memes in an attempt to make him laugh. If he laughed, he’d flash an Amazon gift card on screen, with the final video having amounts over $10,000. However, all the codes were redeemed before the video even went live.
After KSI’s team pressured YouTube, Google reportedly conducted an internal investigation, and some employees ended up being fired. “[Videos] are watched by employees all the time,” a source said, revealing that unlisted videos including scheduled game announcements could easily be seen by staff ahead of time.
Thus far, Rockstar hasn’t announced a date for the second GTA 6 trailer or if the devs will announce it ahead of time like they had with the first at the risk of it being leaked once again.
GTA 6 has had quite a history of leaks, with a massive hack revealing early in-development gameplay footage and even TikToks of the map being shared by a dev’s son.
Rockstar has since ordered its devs to return to office work for the final stages of GTA 6’s development to avoid leaks and deliver a “level of quality and polish” it requires ahead of its Fall 2025 release window.
