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ISLAMABAD: Rockstar Games, the studio behind the forthcoming Grand Theft Auto VI, recently confirmed that hackers accessed company data through a third-party breach and issued a ransom ultimatum: pay up or face a public data dump. The hacker group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the intrusion, setting April 14 as its deadline. By the end of the day, a GTA countdown account on X reported that stolen files had appeared on the dark web, including financial data detailing GTA Online&#39;s revenue. Rockstar&#39;s response was measured. &quot;We can confirm that a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed in connection with a third-party data breach,&quot; a company spokesperson said. &quot;This incident has no impact on our organization or our players.&quot; Cybersecurity outlet The CyberSec Guru reported that ShinyHunters exploited Anodot, a SaaS cloud-cost monitoring tool Rockstar uses, to penetrate the company&#39;s Snowflake data warehouse. The hackers did not crack Snowflake&#39;s encryption. Instead, they obtained authentication tokens from Anodot&#39;s system and used them as digital passkeys to access Rockstar&#39;s Snowflake instance. &quot;If you give a tool like Anodot broad read permissions on your Snowflake warehouse and that tool gets compromised, the data is gone. Snowflake isn&#39;t the weak link here; the integration policy is,&quot; The CyberSec Guru said. Snowflake confirmed that a breach occurred on its platform, saying only a handful of customers were affected. ShinyHunters sent a direct message to Rockstar: &quot;Your Snowflake instances were compromised thanks to Anodot.com. Pay or leak. This is a final warning to reach out by 14 Apr 2026 before we leak along with several annoying (digital) problems that&#39;ll come your way. Make the right decision. Don&#39;t be the next headline. FINAL WARNING PAY OR LEAK.&quot; ShinyHunters is a prolific group of English-speaking cybercriminals, believed to be teenagers, who specialize in data theft and extortion. The BBC, which spoke directly with the group, noted that they had previously claimed responsibility for a breach at the ticketing giant Ticketmaster. Since January, according to several media outlets, the group has expanded its reach amid a wave of SaaS data thefts, targeting companies including Panera Bread and Salesforce. The stakes are considerable. GTA 6 is due for release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S on Nov. 19, with a reported budget of approximately $3 billion. Leaked data could expose marketing timelines, unreleased trailers, or financial details, providing insider knowledge to betting markets tracking the game&#39;s release schedule. Rockstar&#39;s framing of the accessed data as &quot;non-material&quot; suggests the company does not expect a damaging GTA 6 content leak six months before launch, nor any disruption to its release plans. This is the third major security incident Rockstar has faced in recent years. In 2022, more than 90 videos and images from an early build of GTA 6 were leaked online by the hacking group Lapsus$, an intrusion that cost Rockstar nearly $5 million. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick called the incident &quot;really frustrating and upsetting to the team.&quot;&nbsp; In December 2023, the first GTA 6 trailer leaked on X less than 24 hours before its scheduled premiere, forcing Rockstar to release it on YouTube ahead of schedule. &quot;In terms of the leak, that&#39;s always disappointing for the team, but ultimately, I don&#39;t think it hurt us,&quot; Zelnick said at the time. Whether the current breach carries similar consequences remains unclear. Rockstar has not indicated it will pay the ransom.

Video Game

Rockstar Games confirms a limited data breach via a third-party tool, as hackers ShinyHunters claim responsibility and leak files online, issuing a ransom demand ahead of GTA 6’s planned release.

GTA 6 maker Rockstar breached: Hackers demand 'pay or leak'

TOKYO: Japanese giant Sony hiked its full-year forecasts on Thursday, as a weaker yen compensates for its ageing PlayStation games console and a memory chip crunch.&nbsp;Sony now expects net profit of 1.13 trillion yen ($7.2 billion) in the 2025-26 fiscal year, up from its previous projection of 1.05 trillion yen, and a 6%&nbsp;rise on last year.&nbsp;It also projected a 20.6%&nbsp;rise in operating profit and revenues of 12.3 trillion yen, up 2.2%, as well as an improved operating margin of 12.5%, a statement said.&nbsp;For its third quarter, Sony&#39;s net profit rose 11%, and revenues were up 1%. Operating income of 515 billion yen beat analysts&#39; expectations.&nbsp;Sony&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/marvels-wolverine-trailer-delivers-cuttingedge-graphics-gritty-violence" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">PlayStation 5</a>&nbsp;(PS5), launched in 2020, is beginning to get old, and sales volumes of the games console fell 16%&nbsp;in the last quarter.&nbsp;The company offered steep discounts on the device last year in an attempt to boost demand.&nbsp;However, the Japanese group, like its competitors worldwide, is suffering from a growing shortage of memory chips.&nbsp;That is driving up the prices of the chips and eroding the profit margins of all sorts of electronic goods.&nbsp;Shares in Nintendo, maker of the rival Switch 2, dived 11%&nbsp;on Wednesday over concerns about software sales and the impact of the memory chip supply crunch.&nbsp;Sony shares initially soared almost 6%&nbsp;on Thursday but were flat in late trade in a falling overall market.&nbsp;&lsquo;AI boom&rsquo;The artificial intelligence boom has pushed up prices and shipments of conventional NAND and DRAM memory chips, while demand for high‑bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI servers has soared.&nbsp;&quot;It will definitely get more difficult to offer reduced prices (of the PS5) this year than in 2025,&quot; gaming industry consultant Serkan Toto told AFP.&nbsp;Sony did not comment on the chip issue in its earnings release, which analysts say could also hit its hardware products, such as cameras, TVs, and smartphones, as well as its image sensor segment.&nbsp;Last month, Sony said it was spinning off its home entertainment business, which includes TVs, into a joint venture with Chinese giant TCL.&nbsp;It might also force Sony to delay the launch of a potential PlayStation 6 to the second quarter of 2028, Yasuo Nakane from Mizuho said in a recent note. &#39;Grand Theft Auto VI&#39;&nbsp;The hotly anticipated upcoming release of &quot;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/grand-theft-auto-vi-video-game-delayed-again-until-nov-2026" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Grand Theft Auto VI</a>&quot; is also important for PlayStation&#39;s continued sales.&nbsp;GTA&#39;s creators, Rockstar Games, delayed the launch again last year, this time until November.&nbsp;&quot;In 2026, GTA VI will do to PS5 what Covid did a few years ago to Sony: provide a massive boost, enough to carry the platform to 2028,&quot; Toto said.&nbsp;&quot;Nobody doubts that GTA VI will be the biggest game launch (and perhaps of an entertainment product) of all time.&quot;&nbsp;Sony is also banking on growth in the music division thanks to increased sales related to concerts and merchandise, while results are expected to stagnate in film and consumer electronics.&nbsp;It began reducing its exposure to this low-margin sector several years ago to focus on entertainment and imaging technologies, its main growth drivers.&nbsp;Sony&#39;s forecast for the estimated impact of tariffs this year imposed on Japanese imports by US President Donald Trump&#39;s administration remained at 50 billion yen.

People walk past the Sony headquarters in Tokyo on February 10, 2025. (Photo: AFP/File)

Business

It also projects a 20.6% rise in operating profit and revenues of 12.3 trillion yen, up 2.2%, as well as an improved operating margin of 12.5%, a statement said.

Articles tagged with "Grand Theft Auto VI"

GTA 6 maker Rockstar breached: Hackers demand 'pay or leak'

Sony hikes forecasts even as PlayStation falters

GTA 6 maker Rockstar breached: Hackers demand 'pay or leak'