ShinyHunters breached Rockstar Games in ransomware attack, sets April 14 deadline

Grand Theft Auto VI is one of the most anticipated video games ever, and is quickly becoming one of the most prematurely hacked games ever, too.

Originally reported by Hackread and The Cybersec Guru, the prominent hacker group ShinyHunters claimed it had hacked GTA developer Rockstar Games over the weekend. The group said it was in possession of valuable data, and set a deadline of Tuesday, April 14 for Rockstar to pay up, lest the data be released to the public.

“Rockstar Games, your Snowflake instances were compromised thanks to Anodot.com. Pay or leak,” ShinyHunters said in a statement on Saturday. “This is a final warning to reach out by 14 Apr 2026 before we leak, along with several annoying (digital) problems that’ll come your way. Make the right decision, don’t be the next headline.”

However, Rockstar is framing things a little differently. In a statement to Kotaku, the company downplayed concerns about the material in question.

“We can confirm that a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed in connection with a third-party data breach,” Rockstar said. “This incident has no impact on our organization or our players.”

Reports indicate the hack was focused less on personal data and more on corporate assets. In other words, it doesn’t seem like player information is at stake here (as Rockstar said), but things like marketing materials could see the light of day before Rockstar intended.

If ShinyHunters sounds familiar, that’s because the group was also responsible for major hacks of Salesforce and Bumble in recent years.

As for GTA VI, Rockstar had to do damage control after a major hack revealed some game details ahead of time, all the way back in 2022. With the game set for release in November of this year, hopefully, the leaks will end one way or another soon.