Arion Kurtaj, a hacker who leaked early-build footage of GTA 6 last year, has been given a life sentence in a "secure hospital". Kurtaj's stemmed from the judge's assessment that he was not remorseful for his actions. Furthermore, he was deemed to still pose a threat to the general public. This was because he “continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible.”. As well as Rockstar Games, Kurtaj was also linked to attacks on Uber and Nvidia.
Kurtaj, who is autistic, was ruled unfit to stand trial. This meant that a jury was asked to only consider if he committed the acts in question, not if he committed them with criminal intent. Furthermore, Kurtaj hacked Rockstar while in police custody as he waited trial for previous hacks on Nvidia and BT/EE. Rockstar Games reportedly spent $5M recovering from Kurtaj's hack, which saw 90 minutes of early-build footage released online.
Elon Musk Says He Doesn't Play "GTA"
The news of Kurtaj's sentencing comes a few weeks after Rockstar released their first official trailer for GTA 6, which is due out in 2025. However, the trailer's release led to a bizarre brag from X owner Elon Musk. Musk revealed that GTA is not a game series that he plays. "Tried, but didn’t like doing crime. GTA5 required shooting police officers in the opening scene. Just couldn’t do it," Musk tweeted in reply to another user saying they didn't play the games. The response was widely mocked on the platform, with many people saying that Elon Musk was "a Drake type".
However, Musk's indifference to the series didn't stop his beloved X from debasing themselves at the feet of the game's developer, Rockstar. Rockstar was forced to release their trailer a day earlier due to an internal leak. However, X CEO Linda Yaccarino quickly made a post suggesting that Rockstar should directly upload the trailer to X to increase visibility. Rockstar would later do this, albeit with a boilerplate caption added. Despite the hype, fans were largely underwhelmed by the trailer. It was definitely more of a game reveal than a full trailer. The brief upload showed off the vibes of the game's Miami-esque setting and a vague release date.
[via]