Guilty Gear Strive developer Arc System Works has suffered a “data leakage due to unauthorised access”.
In a brief statement, the company said that while its systems had been illegally accessed by a third-party and data was leaked, it didn’t believe the leak included any “personal information or player account information”.
“We regret to announce that we have discovered that our systems were illegally accessed by a third party and that data held by us was leaked to outside parties,” the statement read.
“As of May 12, we have not confirmed the leak of any user personal information or player account information due to the unauthorised access. We are working diligently to determine the cause of the unauthorised access and the extent of the impact with the help of outside experts, and we will inform you if any new facts are discovered as a result of the investigation.
“We sincerely apologise to all for any inconvenience and concern this may cause. We are truly sorry.”
The statement closed on imploring people not to try and access the data that was allegedly leaked, “as there is a possibility that it may cause malware infection”.
What information, exactly, the leakers did manage to access remains to be seen. Arc System Works hasn’t said if it was employee data or information pertaining to unreleased or unannounced game projects, but Dexerto reported earlier this month, before Arc’s statement, that Guilty Gear Strive’s source code was leaked, including “new data” about the game’s story and characters.
Of course, this isn’t the first time a studio’s plans been hacked and prematurely leaked. In December 2023, PlayStation-owned Spider-Man developer Insomniac had detailed plans of future projects published online, stolen from the company by hackers, and then ransomed for $2m. The files include a project roadmap for the next decade and beyond including an array of unannounced projects, plus production details, art assets, and personal information on Insomniac employees.
Perhaps more famously still, 90+ videos and screenshots from Rockstar’s then-unannounced GTA 6 also leaked online early in September 2022 after a hacker managed to access its internal systems.
