Stop Killing Games condemns Rockstar hackers’ false preservation plea
Developing story first seen 2 hours ago
The Stop Killing Games campaign has issued a pointed rebuke of a group of hackers who breached Rockstar Games' systems and then invoked game preservation as justification, demanding that the studio commit to preservation measures and release physical discs for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6. Responding directly to the leakers, the campaign stated plainly that "using illegal means to make a point is unacceptable," making clear it wants no association with their methods despite sharing some of their underlying concerns.
The clash highlights a growing tension between legitimate preservation advocacy, which Stop Killing Games has pursued through petitions and legal channels across Europe, and opportunists who co-opt similar language to excuse hacking and leaking unreleased material. By publicly disavowing the leakers, the campaign is seeking to protect the credibility of its above-board push for measures such as physical media and end-of-life support commitments from publishers like Rockstar, rather than let its cause be conflated with unauthorised intrusions into a studio's systems.
- Stop Killing Games disavows GTA 6 leakers citing preservation as their excuse.
- Campaign says "using illegal means to make a point is unacceptable."
- Leakers had demanded Rockstar commit to physical discs, preservation steps.
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Stop Killing Games is a consumer campaign that argues video games should not be permanently disabled or made unplayable once publishers stop supporting them, often because the games rely on servers that get switched off. It has run petitions and pursued legal avenues in Europe to push publishers towards commitments such as offline modes, patches, or other ways of keeping games playable long-term, and preservation of gaming history is central to its case.
Rockstar Games, best known for the Grand Theft Auto series, recently had its systems accessed by hackers, who obtained and leaked internal material. The hackers framed their actions as being in the interest of game preservation, including calls for physical discs of the unreleased Grand Theft Auto 6, a positioning that put them in the same conversation as legitimate preservation campaigners.
This matters because it creates confusion between two very different things: lawful advocacy for industry change, and unauthorised hacking and leaking of a company's private data. Stop Killing Games has sought to draw a clear line between the two, distancing its campaign from the hackers' methods even though some of the underlying concerns about preservation overlap.
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Originally published by GamesRadar+ as “GTA 6 leakers called out by Stop Killing Games after demanding game preservation solutions and physical discs from Rockstar: “Using illegal means to make a point is unacceptable””.