Was The GTA 6 Reveal Date Leaked?
It just wouldn't be a day on Earth if there wasn't a Grand Theft Auto 6 rumor to talk about, and right on cue, one has arrived. This latest bit of information comes courtesy of YouTuber MrBossFTW, who found an anonymous 4chan post teasing a potential GTA 6 date. What's the date for? We honestly have no idea. But the post — which was extremely brief — promised the world we'd see something related to Grand Theft Auto 6 on March 25.
That is incredibly soon; just a few weeks away, in fact. Unfortunately, this rumor is probably bogus.
To start, the post — which simply states, "March 25th. GTA VI." — is anonymous. It's understandable that some might use anonymity to protect their identities. If Watergate's Deep Throat had been a 4chan user, for instance, perhaps he would've used an anonymous account. That would've made sense. The sad truth, though, is that most use anonymous accounts these days to post falsehoods without having to face consequences. Someone can simply make something up, post it without a name attached, and not see their reputation take a hit should that information be disproven.
As we've seen with online message boards like 4chan and Reddit, this happens a lot.
Message boards also aren't the best way to leak something. Most who work in the games industry are familiar with sites like Kotaku, which made it name digging into stories we'd never find out about otherwise. Those who wish to leak something can contact a journalist there or at another major site and add some legitimacy to a story while still remaining anonymous to the public. Someone going straight to 4chan isn't a sign the information is good. In fact, it's the opposite.
Reporters also have connections around the industry and inside developers like Rockstar. You might notice that, when a big story breaks, other sites try to independently confirm the information being shared with their own sources. That didn't happen here. No other websites have come forward to say there's truth behind the GTA 6 date shared on 4chan, and that's likely because it's entirely made up.
Finally, the date seems more like a shot in the dark than anything, because it lacks context. What are we supposed to get excited about on March 25? Will Rockstar be announcing Grand Theft Auto 6? Is there a surprise release in store? Is parent company Take-Two holding a financial call on that date, where someone believes we may get a hint about GTA 6? All of that key information is missing from the post, which makes it appear less like it's legit and more like it's designed to disappear if it doesn't pan out.
If March 25 comes and goes without a peep about a new Grand Theft Auto, most will forget about the post. You can certainly count on another one coming to take its place in due time, though.
As far as MrBossFTW is concerned, he found the 4chan post and talked about it with a healthy dose of skepticism. That skepticism was extremely warranted. Covering the story, however, gave it more oxygen and allowed it to continue flying around online. When you run a channel that's mostly about the latest Grand Theft Auto news, it's understandable that content is probably hard to find seven years after the last game came out. That said, if you're talking about an anonymous 4chan post, labeling it as "an online report" in order to make it sound more believable is not great.
There are all sorts of leaks that come into the spotlight and feel like they have the ring of truth. If you see a game developer with a laptop open and a graphic of Shadow of the Tomb Raider on the screen, you probably have something. If you see a foreign ratings board rate a game for the Nintendo Switch, even though it hasn't been announced, you can likely expect an announcement at some point. Anonymous forum posts, though, are a beast unto themselves.
There are pros and cons to anonymity. There are reasons one might want to post as "anonymous," or share information using an alias. Rockstar would undoubtedly retaliate against an employee it found leaking Grand Theft Auto 6 news, and if a leaker wanted to keep their job, keeping their name out of the headlines would be smart.
The downside, though, is that anonymous leaks also create an endless torrent of misinformation to wade through. And with GTA 6, especially, we're seeing a lot of that. People are rightly excited about Rockstar adding another entry to the series. Financially, it would make sense for Rockstar to do it. But GTA 6 has not been announced or confirmed. It may not even be a project on the board right now at the studio. Who knows.
Should we hear any news about a potential Grand Theft Auto 6 announcement, we'll be sure to fill you in. For now, you can probably discount this latest rumor as nothing more than a prank.