GTA 6: Take-Two subpoenas X and Google in the hunt for Cyberleek
The hunt intensifies
On August 30, Mashable reported that Take-Two Interactive — Rockstar's parent company — has filed new subpoenas against X (formerly Twitter) and Google as part of its effort to unmask Cyberleek, the anonymous persona behind this summer's wave of GTA 6 leaks. According to the report, Take-Two asked the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York on August 21 to order the two platforms "to produce the identity of" whoever is responsible.
The move follows two similar subpoena requests against Microsoft and Discord, filed the same week. In those documents, Take-Two described the leaked material as "stolen content" and "leaked gameplay videos," and gave Microsoft until September 4 to hand over records from its internal investigation of the Cyberleek persona (Kotaku).
A leak campaign with a crypto twist
Cyberleek first surfaced in mid-August, drip-feeding gameplay clips, screenshots and internal-looking footage of the unfinished game across forums, YouTube and X — material whose authenticity Rockstar has never officially confirmed, although Take-Two's own legal filings go a long way toward validating it (Mashable). The campaign even claimed an ideological motive: a manifesto against what it called "anti-consumer" practices such as digital-only pre-orders and always-online requirements.
But the money trail tells another story. Just hours before Rockstar's official reveal on Netflix, the Solana wallet behind Cyberleek appears to have cashed out around $250,000 in a series of transactions, according to Tom's Hardware — an estimate close to the nearly £200,000 put forward by Eurogamer, and one that has led outlets like PC Gamer to describe the operation as a textbook crypto rug pull. The associated $CYBERLEEK memecoin has since collapsed: CoinDesk reports the token down about 46% in 24 hours, its market cap falling from a $25 million peak on August 23 to roughly $7 million.
Spoilers, subpoenas and a named YouTuber
The leaks have continued even after the official reveal: this week Mashable reported that Cyberleek posted its first major story spoilers, including footage from the Lucia prologue. Meanwhile, at least one YouTuber named in Take-Two's subpoena has publicly insisted he did nothing wrong, telling IGN "I am not special, hopefully" — though no verified link between that channel and the leak operation has been established. FOX 26 Houston, for its part, notes that the identity of the person or people behind Cyberleek remains unknown, and that it has not been publicly established exactly how the unreleased footage was obtained (FOX 26 Houston).
What it means
The stakes for Take-Two are enormous: the publisher lost billions in market value when the leaks first emerged, and GTA 6 — still scheduled for November 19 — is the single biggest commercial bet in the company's history. By subpoenaing X and Google, Take-Two is no longer just chasing the footage: it is forcing the platforms that hosted it to help identify the person behind it. Whether the courts cooperate quickly enough to matter before launch — and whether the leaker has more to drop — remains to be seen. One thing is certain: the hunt for Cyberleek has just become a very public legal battle.