James Lucas is an Executive Editor from Newcastle, England. They have written for sites like IGN, NME, GaymingMag, and VG247, with a special focus on FPS games, Soulslikes, and survival horror.
“To any of my connections at Rockstar Games and Rockstar Toronto, or anyone else that may be able to help. A member of my family who has been battling cancer for a year just recently got the worst possible news, he was given 6-12 months to live […] 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.”
This was the plea that Ubisoft Toronto developer Anthony Armstrong made on LinkedIn, hoping to cut through Rockstar secrecy and help their loved one get in with a chance to play the long-awaited next instalment in their favourite series before it’s too late. Thankfully, as reported by Insider Gaming, Take-Two responded with some “great news”; at the very least, he appears to have been offered an exclusive playtest.
Rockstar likewise offered a terminally ill fan to play Red Dead Redemption 2 early in 2018, just weeks before launch.
“The CEO of Take-Two [Strauss Zelnick] reached out and we are just waiting to hear from the Rockstar team to discuss this further,” Armstrong said in a now-deleted update. “Thank you to everyone who has shown support, reshared, and reached out to your contacts for us.”
“Thank You All From The Bottom Of My Heart”
Armstrong took down his LinkedIn thread once it started making the rounds (though you can still see a snippet of it via Google, and some were able to grab pictures of the post), but before it was deleted, he shared one final update. “We spoke to them today and got great news. That’s all I can really say, but thank you all from the bottom of my heart.”
It’s a touching story, even if everyone on social media is begging them to leak the game. Never change, GTA fans.
