As eagerly awaited as some of this year’s other big releases are, the most anticipated (so much so that it won an award) is undoubtedly Grand Theft Auto 6. Most of us will have to wait until November 19th, assuming there isn’t a third delay. However, one fan may seemingly have gone hands-on early.
Insider Gaming spotted a LinkedIn post from last month by Anthony Armstrong, who works at Ubisoft Toronto, requested any possible connections to Rockstar Games or Rockstar Toronto developers. The reason is that their family member, woh, who had fought cancer for years, was diagnosed with having only six to 12 months to live.
“The reason I’m reaching out is that they are a huge GTA fan and, with this latest update, he may not be around long enough to actually get to see GTA 6 launch. Best-case scenario, he will be leaving us the same month it does. He currently lives only a stone’s throw from the Oakville studio, so it’s my hope that one of you may be able to set up an exclusive playtest, so he can have a chance to experience the game before passing.
“I absolutely understand the need for secrecy at this point of development, so at the very least, an NDA is probably needed.”
Armstrong later revealed that Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick had apparently reached out, and they were “just waiting to hear from the Rockstar team to discuss this further. Thank you to everyone who has shown support, reshared, and reached out to your contacts for us.”
The “final update” noted that the family had spoken to the team and received “great news,” which was all they could “really say.” That last part was apparently too much information since the entire post has been deleted.
Rockstar has done something similar, helping a terminally ill fan play an early build of Red Dead Redemption 2 several weeks before its launch. Another company under Take-Two’s purview, Gearbox Entertainment, assisted a terminally ill fan experience Borderlands 4 in 2024.
As for the current state of Grand Theft Auto 6, it’s widely been rumored as content-complete for a while now (despite some recent drama about how this wasn’t the case). Rockstar is currently focused on polishing the title and has yet to offer any new details.
