A Ubisoft Toronto developer claims Take-Two Interactive helped arrange early Grand Theft Auto 6 access for his terminally ill family member, but there is a hiccup with this feel-good story. The original LinkedIn post has been deleted, and neither Rockstar Games nor Take-Two Interactive has confirmed anything. This means the story is unconfirmed as the source material is now gone, and all we have are screenshots and secondhand reports .
However, this wouldn't mark the first time Rockstar pulled a "Make a Wish" and broke character regarding their famously tight-lipped development process for a dying fan.
As initially spotted online, Anthony Armstrong, a UI Integrator at Ubisoft Toronto, posted a heartfelt appeal on LinkedIn sometime in December 2025. In the now-deleted post, Armstrong explained that a member of his family had been battling cancer for years and had recently received the worst possible news: a prognosis of just six to twelve months to live.
While getting to play an upcoming video game, no matter how anticipated, is likely not the biggest thing on someone's mind when they get that news, for a fan it still means much, and GTA 6 is currently scheduled for November 19, 2026. Armstrong wrote that his relative, described as a "huge GTA fan," might not have long to live. At the very least, he wouldn't get a chance to play GTA 6 following the delay.
In his words, "best case scenario he will be leaving us the same month it does." Armstrong noted that a family member lives "only a stone's throw from the Oakville studio" and asked whether he could request an exclusive playtest. He acknowledged "the need for secrecy at this point of development" and said he fully understood if an NDA was required.
The post apparently gained enough traction to reach its target. According to screenshots captured before it 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 - not 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.
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.
As for the rest of us, we'll need to wait until GTA 6 launches in November 2026, assuming another delay doesn't push it further.
