Police Scotland confirmed just one incident at Rockstar North, when officers attended on May 26 after a report of men filming outside, found no crime, and left. No special protection program exists.
The internet spent the past week believing that Rockstar North was under a government-backed police protection program with armed escorts, 24/7 patrols, and a level of security rivaling that of a military installation. Police Scotland says none of that is true.
In a statement to LADbible, Police Scotland confirmed one incident at the Rockstar North office on Holyrood Road in Edinburgh: on May 26, officers responded to a report of men filming outside the building. They attended, found no criminal activity, gave advice, and moved on. That's pretty much it.
The dramatic claims, a "special police protection program" requested by the Scottish government, police patrols every 20 to 30 minutes, 50 to 60 cameras, 24/7 lobby security, and police escorts for staff, were merely exaggerations, made believable only because of ÜberGaming, the German YouTuber whose crew entered Rockstar North and had police visit their hotel the same week.
Truth vs. Exaggeration
| Claim | Source | Verified? |
|---|---|---|
YouTubers entered Rockstar North lobby and were removed by security | ÜberGaming video; GTABOOM coverage | Yes: confirmed by video footage and Police Scotland |
Police took YouTubers' identification details at their hotel | ÜberGaming video | Yes: consistent with Police Scotland's statement about the May 26 incident |
Rockstar North has private security and cameras | Observable; standard for any major corporate office | Yes: normal private security measures |
"Special police protection program" requested by Scottish government | ÜberGaming video claims | No: Police Scotland found no evidence of this |
Police patrols every 20-30 minutes around the building | ÜberGaming video claims | No: not confirmed; Holyrood Road is near the Scottish Parliament, which has its own baseline police presence |
50-60 security cameras on the building | ÜberGaming video claims | Unverified: camera counts are not publicly confirmed; some cameras may belong to neighboring properties or the council |
Police escorts for senior Rockstar staff | ÜberGaming video claims | No: Police Scotland did not reference any escort program |
24/7 police presence in the lobby | ÜberGaming video claims | No: Police Scotland referenced no such arrangement; lobby security would be private, not police |
The exaggerated claims were presented as insider information in ÜberGaming's video and then amplified by an audience that was predisposed to believe them.
To be fair, Rockstar Games has genuine reasons for heightened security. The 2022 source code breach changed the studio's information security permanently. Since then, the studio has fired 34 employees for allegedly sharing confidential information, and it reportedly will not send review codes to journalists anymore.
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Grand Theft Auto 6 and its $3 billion budget, along with its $8 billion in SEC-filed guidance with at least $10 billion in projected added valuation on the line, create a massive financial incentive to prevent leaks. This doesn't necessarily mean the Scottish government deployed a special police unit to guard a video game studio.
The reality versus what went viral is the perfect example of how GTA 6 hype distorts information in real time. A YouTuber enters a building, is removed by private security, has their details taken by police, which is a perfectly normal response to an uninvited visitor at any high-profile corporate office, and then presents the experience as evidence of an extraordinary government-backed lockdown. Audiences accept it without fact-checking, the story spreads, and by the time Police Scotland corrects it, millions have already seen the exaggerated version.
This is exactly what happened with the Best Buy pre-order saga. The email was real and legitimate. It's just that the dates were wrong. Yet, Take-Two Interactive saw its valuation swing by $2 billion in a single morning, and this was all based on unverified information.
The Grand Theft Auto hype cycle does not just amplify real news. It latches onto parts of stories that feel the most dramatic, regardless of reality.
Sure, Rockstar North has private security, complete with cameras, and other whatnot. It removes uninvited visitors. It calls the police when people enter the building unannounced. It's also located in a central Edinburgh location, a stone's throw away from the Scottish Parliament, so the area will naturally have more police presence. All of that is real, and all of that is normal for a company with billions of dollars of intellectual property on its hard drives five months before the biggest product launch in entertainment history.