Today's modern technology means that information is more easily accessible than ever. It also means that keeping something secret is next to impossible. Luckily for fans, this means that the new game that your favorite developer has been teasing you with for months will probably end up leaking in some form or another soon enough.
With the recent leaks of information on both Call of Duty: Black Ops III and Fallout 4, we decided to take a look at some of the most notable video game leaks.
Crysis 2
Crysis 2 didn't do very well upon its release. While some argue that the quality of the game itself was lacking, it certainly didn't help that the entire game had been leaked to multiple torrent sites a month prior to its release. The leaked version was incomplete, but featured online multiplayer and was apparently playable from start to finish.
Crysis 2 went on to become the most pirated game of the year. Ouch.
Half-Life 2
While Valve's classic hit, Half-Life 2, was generally received well and still remains a staple in the video game community, it had it's fair share of trouble before release.
Half-Life 2 was originally set for a September 2003 launch, but it was pushed back over a year when a young boy named Axel Gembe hacked into Valve servers and stole the source code for an unfinished Half-Life 2. Gembe would have most likely gotten away with it had he not turned around and gave back the code, asking for a job at Valve in return; he was instead arrested.
Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm
One of the more recent notable leaks was Starcraft's Heart of the Swarm expansion, which had one of the most painful leaks. An unfinished cinematic video in the game was released to the public. This video was a rough, unfinished version that was missing key visual and audio components. However, it was the ending cinematic and therefore still gave away a ton of spoilers about the game's story.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
No one in this list got hit quit as unexpectedly as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The game was still nearly 6 months away from it's release when Kotaku released a ton of info that ranged from story details to screenshots. Anyone willing to check out the links had undoubtedly ruined any surprises Modern Warfare 3 could have had in store.
In response to the massive leak, the developers jumped into crisis mode and started throwing coal into their marketing train, releasing multiple trailers to show off aspects of the leak that had been exposed.
Marvel vs Capcom 3
Marvel vs Capcom 3 is a prime example of a leak being caused by employee error instead of malicious intent. Capcom had unveiled the first four characters of the fighting game's roster, but made the mistake of putting all the character files onto their site as well, meaning anyone smart enough to replace, say, Hawkeye with another character in the URL, would be redirected to a yet-to-be-released character.
Whoops.
What do you think of this list? Any other notable game leaks you'd like to add? Let me know in the comments below!
Published: Nov 2, 2015 04:29 pm