Goat Simulator 3 developer Coffee Stain North has ended up under the thumb of Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two after posting an ad for its open-world havoc simulator that used footage from this year’s Grand Theft Auto VI leak.
The video has since been removed from video platforms after a copyright claim, but those who managed to see the video before it was taken down (thanks, Eurogamer) say the ad featured a character named Shaun, who was being interviewed about working on Goat Simulator 3 and bragging about his skills in animating ragdoll physics.
However, the video took a turn when Shaun spoke of work he’d done outside Goat Simulator 3, to which he said, “I’ve other stuff in the pipeline, other, big game worlds. You can actually see me in some footage that was leaked a couple months ago.” This was followed by an edited clip of the Grand Theft Auto VI leak. Take-Two clearly did not like this, and has since purged the offending video from the internet.
This was always the natural conclusion of things, and now the ad isn’t even viewable anywhere Coffee Stain North posted. That being said, it wouldn’t be surprising if the studio already foresaw this happening and was looking for a way to get Goat Simulator 3 a little bit of holiday buzz. I mean, we’re writing about it here because it’s suddenly become newsworthy, right? The game is just over a month old now, having launched for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S in November, but outside of the sickest of goat sickos, it hasn’t had a ton of noise around it. In the past, the series has referenced other games in its ads, such as Goat Simulator 3’s original announcement trailer that parodied the Dead Island 2 announcement trailer back in June.
We’ve reached out to both Coffee Stain North and Take-Two for comment on the situation.
The Grand Theft Auto VI leak happened back in September, and was an unprecedented early look at one of the medium’s most anticipated games. Take-Two wasn’t thrilled, however, and was adamant about pulling as much of it from the internet as possible, even going as far as to lock social media responses so people couldn’t share or discuss the leak on its social channels. We combed through all the leaked footage and compiled some of the juicy bits, which you can read right here.