Did Take-Two Just Reach out to Terminally Ill Fan About Playing GTA 6 Early?

The post apparently gained enough traction. According to screenshots captured before the post was removed, Armstrong later updated his followers with encouraging news. The first update claimed that Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick personally reached out and that they were "just waiting to hear from the Rockstar team to discuss this further."

A final update reportedly read: "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."

That vague phrasing is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. "Great news" could mean early access was granted. It could also mean something else entirely. And with the post now deleted, which isn't surprising given how secretive Rockstar has been about GTA 6, we have no way to verify what actually happened.

If Rockstar did grant early access, it would follow a similar precedent set in 2018 ahead of the release of Red Dead Redemption 2. A terminally ill fan from the Netherlands named Jurian, who suffered from Neurofibromatosis Type 2, received a private demo at his home just weeks before the game's launch. Two Rockstar employees brought the game to him and let him play for an entire afternoon.

However, that was two weeks out. We're nearly a year away from GTA 6 being released, and there are talks that the game isn't close to being finished.

This is where we stand at the moment: a LinkedIn post existed, claimed positive contact with Take-Two, and was then deleted. That's the extent of everything we can verify online. The early access promise is still unclear even if there is absolutely precedent for this kind of thing.

It's worth noting that this story surfaced during a period when Rockstar faced criticism for reportedly laying off employees allegedly involved in union organizing. Is it an attempt to generate positive PR? It's possible.

None of that means the story isn't genuine. Terminal illness is devastating, and if Rockstar truly helped a dying fan experience GTA 6 before it's too late, that's a genuinely compassionate gesture. But until Rockstar or Take-Two confirms anything, this remains a nice story that we can't actually verify.

For now, the rest of us will have to wait until GTA 6 launches in November 2026, assuming another delay doesn't push it further.