Rockstar Games, the developer behind the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series, has confirmed it suffered a fresh data breach after a hacker group threatened to leak allegedly stolen company files unless a ransom is paid.

The company confirmed the incident in a statement, saying a “limited amount of non-material company information” was accessed through a third-party breach.

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

The threat message, allegedly posted by the cybercriminal group ShinyHunters, warned Rockstar to “pay or leak” before an April 14 deadline, with a ransom of $200,000.

The group claimed Rockstar’s Snowflake cloud data was compromised through a third-party company, Anodot.

According to reports, the hackers said the stolen data would be released publicly because their demands had not been met.

The group, believed to be teenagers, has previously been linked to major breaches involving Ticketmaster and other global firms.

This marks the second major breach involving Rockstar.

In 2023, British hacker Arion Kurtaj leaked around 90 early gameplay videos and internal materials linked to the then-unfinished GTA 6.

The breach exposed unfinished footage of the game, prompting the company to release a trailer.

GTA is an action video game series in which players explore massive cities and complete missions.

The series was created by David Jones and brothers Dan and Sam Houser.

It started in 1997 as a 2D game in which players performed tasks, then moved to fully 3D in 2001 with GTA 3, allowing players to ignore missions, explore, and drive around the city.

The new game, GTA 6, is set in the fictional state of Leonida, inspired by Florida.

It is currently scheduled for release on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.