Fake Grand Theft Auto VI video goes viral, sparking backlash

A bastard picture that purported to demo leaked footage of the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI has enraged gamers and raised renewed interest about AI-generated content, after reportedly being seen millions of times.

The video, posted on X but since deleted, claimed to show the main character Lucia walking through the game's fictionalized version of Florida, according to the gaming news site IGN, and was viewed more than eight million times in less than 24 hours.

The person behind the X account, which is called Zap Actu GTA6, told IGN that the video was designed "observe people’s reactions and to demonstrate how easy it has become in 2025 to blur the line between reality and AI-generated content," adding that "this was never done with bad intentions."

Zap Actu GTA6 later told IGN: "It was a huge joke, actually, I just did it to entertain the community. Sorry for the false hope lol."

Replies to some of Zap Actu GTA6's later posts which are still online suggest gamers were not, in fact, entertained.

"Disgusting behaviour," said one person, while another advocated for the account being banned. Many others were laced with profanity.

Zap Actu apologized for the confusion on Thursday, promising to focus on posting "official, verified GTA6 news" and "clearly labelled theoretical or speculative content," in the future. They also claimed to have not generated any advertising revenue from video views or other engagement.

Grand Theft Auto VI will follow the franchise's last major instalment, which has sold over 200 million copies since launching in 2013, buoyed over the years with online multiplayer material.

To date, publisher Rockstar Games has only released two short trailers and a handful of screenshots for the hotly anticipated title. Neither trailer contains gameplay, but instead shows pre-made, cinematic scenes meant more to introduce the characters, world and to set a general mood.

The game, originally set for a late 2025 launch, was recently delayed to Nov. 19, 2026 — the second major delay since its first trailer was unveiled.

Searching for the game online, however, brings a deluge of fake screenshots and video claiming to show new details. Some claim to be new trailers, with a disclaimer buried in the description saying it's a fan-made or concept video.

Rockstar typically refrains from commenting on such videos and rumours. Yin-Poole said if they did, "they probably wouldn't get much else done. There's a new GTA VI rumour pretty much every day of the week."

Rockstar did, however, respond to an actual leak of work-in-progress footage of the game back in 2022, blaming it on an illegal "network intrusion" by a third party.

AI isn't only making it easier to generate fake videos of a game the public has yet to play; it's also making it easier than ever to disseminate them.

Polygon reported that a YouTuber named Jeffery Phillips earlier this year tricked Google's AI Overview search tool into repeating his invented claim that the game had a button to make the main character twerk, simply by posting the false assertion over and over again on social media.

And earlier this month, some users got a Google notification on their phone about a new, so-called final trailer for GTA VI — again, a fake.

Journalist

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