Rockstar Games accidentally releases GTA 6 placeholder screenshots

Rockstar Games has a harder time than most developers keeping their secrets secret.

An army of eager fans apparently monitors the official website like a hawk around the clock, so the community can't miss even a small, early website update.

That's exactly what happened when Grand Theft Auto 6 was listed on a new page with empty screenshot placeholders.

We often see a similar pattern repeat itself – be it in premature social media posts, website updates or insightful entries in the LinkedIn CVs of current and former employees. Whenever something is shared too much, it makes the rounds in the community and then suddenly disappears; anything but a confirmation that it is actually true. The latest instance of this appeared on the official Rockstar Games website.

Update: The new page ( has just been removed, but the code with placeholders remains in the database published yesterday.
There is also talk of digital purchases (pre-orders).

R* was probably preparing the website and had no intention of… pic.twitter.com/T0VxaDnt3o

— GTA 6 Countdown ⏳ (@GTAVI_Countdown) May 8, 2024

Fans visiting the site noticed a new section as they navigated through the list of games in the developer's database of titles. This one is dedicated to GTA VI and immediately caught attention as this list focuses on already released titles. What added to the interest was the unfinished state of the page, with a section titled “Screens” containing some empty placeholders that were highlighted when hovered over.

Internet experts immediately set out and tried to find out as much as possible using the “Inspect” function present in most browsers. What we got out of this little blip are filenames and URLs, but no actual images. The best guess based on the unfinished website is that Rockstar is preparing to release four new GTA 6 screenshots soon.

Rockstar swooped in pretty quickly, shutting down the wayward website and setting up redirects so that any avid fans who wanted to see the strange phenomenon for themselves were redirected to the GTA 6 promotional website with the reveal trailer. However, the code for the website can still be found using Inspect, and references to digital pre-orders were subsequently found.

The prevailing theory among fans is that Rockstar Games is preparing for the next phase of the marketing push for Grand Theft Auto VI, which will include new screenshots and the start of the highly anticipated pre-order period. Best Bets are placing this soon – ahead of Take-Two's earnings announcement on May 16th.

Of course, all of this is just speculation at this point. Rockstar Games is known for stubbornly doing things on its own schedule and terms, and for eschewing typical press events and conventions. While it would be a tactically sound move to launch the pre-order campaign shortly before the earnings announcement, it would also be on-brand not to do so.

Luckily, we only have to wait a week to find out! Do you think Rockstar is preparing for a GTA 6 pre-order campaign with new screenshots, or is this theory too optimistic?