Attempts to run Grand Theft Auto V by utilizing Playstation Network preload archives before the releasedate of September 17th are futile said Russian Grand Theft Auto modder Yuriy Krivoruchko, better known as GooD-NTS, the developer of OpenIV, in an interview with Rockstar Informer.

According to Yuriy the preload archives are not enough to successfully start the game. The archives are supposedly encrypted by Rockstar Games, on top of that encryption lies encryption from Sony, keys for that encryption will only be available after the launch of the game.

Rockstar Informer:
Do you think it is possible for them to succeed? If yes, why, and if not, why not?

GooD-NTS (Yuriy Krivoruchko):
"No. It is not possible to run the game or open RPF archives at the moment. To open archives a Rockstar Games encryption key is needed which can be found only in the executable, but the executable is also encrypted by Sony. It is almost impossible to bruteforce that key for the executable but when a disk version leaks, either Playstation 3 or Xbox 360, it will be possible." said Yuriy.

How does this news relate to the future version of OpenIV and support for GTAV?
"We will be able to open RPF archives in OpenIV after encryption keys have been found, future versions of OpenIV will support only the PC version of GTA V as always."

Are these archives enough to get people started in developing tools, or even mods, for the game?
"No, without an encryption key it is all useless."

OpenIV is a tool that is used in the modding community to extract, import and rebuild archives of Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne and Red Dead Redemption games. It is heavily used to create new vehicles, missions, audio and even weapons. Development of OpenIV started in May 2008 when Grand Theft Auto IV was just released for consoles a month earlier.

Ever since GooD-NTS has been developing his OpenIV tool with constant updates, bringing support for many different archives and filetypes, even expanding support to different Rockstar Games titles.

What can you tell us about the new RAGE, Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, format, RPF7?
"Not much, it looks like RPF6 from Red Dead Redemption, but I can't tell more without an encryption key."

Interesting, how is it possible that people are able to play audio files while those audio archive files are also marked as RPF? Are they not encrypted?
"The audio data is not encrypted and does not have additional compression."

I see, then what causes the sound to skip backward or forward when playing?
"It is due to Rockstars own format, the audio data is stored in their specific format."

Do you think hackers will be able to develop tools to properly extract these audio files? If so, what is your status on that?
"The format is the same as Max Payne 3 and Red Dead Redemption, I have already researched that format. I am able to play audio and export as proper multichannel WAV but not from Playstation 3 archives. Currently my OpenIV tool is able to play PC and Xbox 360 (though not in the public version) audio. I need some time to add support for Playstation 3 audio codecs."

GooD-NTS will be developing an update for his OpenIV tool to support Grand Theft Auto V in the future, though it remains to be seen how fast the necessary files are available to get started on development. The developer has recently added support for Max Payne 3 archives.

What do you think of Rockstars attempts to censor YouTube and Ustream to get the content offline?
"They want customers to have the best experience, but if content will leak before the release it can hurt the overall playing experience."

Do you think these audio archives were supposed to be released this soon? Sony must have known that the audio archives would be playable right?
"The archives are made by Rockstar Games. Sony does not know how Rockstar encrypts or packs files, therefore Sony couldn't have known."

Do you think in the future Rockstar will do things differently with preload archives or encryption?
"No, currently people have nothing, only useless files. Of course there is audio, but it is just a lucky accident."

Lastly, what do you look forward to the most in Grand Theft Auto V?
"I am highly anticipating the PC and next-gen versions of the game."

Thank you for your time.
No problem.

There you have it, even though we won't be seeing gameplay anytime soon, atleast not with preload archives that is, there are plenty of interesting tools and tidbits on the horizon and it is only a matter of time before they are released and shared with the rest of the community.