As the gaming industry gets bigger and more attention from the community, the work of leaking a game becomes much more enjoyable. Before the internet become popular, it was much harder for us to do this job. But nowadays is the era technology and internet, so sneaking out information of a game (even an unknown game for the community yet) is easier than ever.
Let’s take a look at those time when the games were leaked in the most creative an unexpected way.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey leaked by a licensed keychain
By now we all have heard of the game Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. This is a successful game in the Assassin’s Creed series by Ubisoft, and it was even used by Google to show off the power of Google Stadia. However, in the first few months of 2018, this game was just a rumor, nothing more. We all expected some news about this game, perhaps gameplay clips, trailers, or ever artworks. But this game was leaked in a really strange way: licensed keychains. Retail outlets around the world were delivered the licensed keychains of the game before the official announcement, and Ubisoft announced the game just a few hours after the incident.
Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee leaked on 2018 April Fools’ Day
It goes without saying that it is dangerous for the leaker to leak a game that is not released yet. So the safest day for leaking a game is definitely April Fools’ Day – the day you have the ultimate safeguard for yourself. The screenshot below was posted to 4chan on 2018 April Fools’ Day. However, at that moment, the gaming community paid little attention to that screenshot. That screenshot, which featured an Eevee riding on the head of a trainer, turned out to be in the game Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee. And this game was not released until 6 months after the leaked image.
Walmart Canada Leaked more than one unannounced games
Just shortly before the E3 2018 event took place, Walmart in Canada has uploaded on their website placeholder listings for a lot of game. Some of those games have been confirmed before this upload, namely NBA2K19, The Division 2, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (thanks to the keychain leak at the beginning of this article). However, we did not know any game in that placeholder listings when it was uploaded, namely Forza Horizon 4 (mistakenly named as Horizon 5 on the website) Lego DC Supervillains, Rage 2. Those games appeared later in the E3 2018 event, but this placeholder listings even included Borderlands 3, which was announced almost a year later in April 2019.
Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm ending leaked two years in advance
You may normally think that leaking a game would be before the game’s release date a few weeks or months only right? Take a look at the case of Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm. This game by Blizzard was leaked it full cinematic ending (yes, you heard it right, full cinematic ending). Moreover, this leak happened two years before the release date of the game. And yes, Blizzard did not change the ending of the game, thus making this leak viable (if you ask, we do not know why Blizzard did that either)
Assassin’s Creed Unity Leaked on an Airplane
We have heard of too many fake leak stories with the same plot: happen to meet a game developer, and this game developer happens to have the urge to talk about the unannounced details of his new game. But the Assassin’s Creed Unity leaking case, things happened exactly like the above plot. krimsoncharge – a member of NeoGAF website – posted his story on the website of sitting next to a game developer from Ubisoft. This game developer told krimsoncharge all the details of the Assassin’s Creed Unity game. Of course, nobody trusted krimsoncharge and his story. But 2 weeks after the post, famous website Kotaku posted leaked screenshots and information of the game that matched with the post of krimsoncharge. Sound too good to be real? Yeah, we know, but it happened.
Fallout 4 Script Leak
In the second half of 2013, no one knew what would happen with the Fallout series. There were rumors that Fallout 4 would be set in Boston, but no more information besides that. Time passed by, and then an unknown leaker sent to famous website Kotaku some casting documents, which included a script, for Project Institute. Those casting documents turned out to be Fallout 4. Information on the characters, the setting, and the first dialog were all true. Till this day, no one knows how that leaker got his hand on those documents.
Dishonored 2 leaked live on Twitch by Bethesda itself
Dishonored 2 was really closed to be kept as a secret until its release if its developer Bethesda had remembered to turn off its live stream. While this game developer was doing some rehearsals for its press conference in the E3 2015 event, it went live stream on Twitch ‘accidentally’. And the live stream part was right the part when it supposed to be for the announcement of Dishonored 2. The name of the game was not mentioned in the live stream, but Bethesda had given the fans and the critics all over the world more than enough information to figure out the game.
Half-Life 2's Source Code leaked online by a hacker
When you think of leaking a game, you only think about leaking the information, plot, images of the game. How about leaking the actual source code of the game. Sound incredible huh? We know, yet, it happened to one of the most famous game in the history of gaming community: Half Life 2. Five months before the release of Half Life 2 in 2003, a German hacker successfully stole the source code of Half Life 2 from Valve and upload it online. Valve was, without a doubt, angry with this incident because with the source code, coders all over the world now can learn Half Life 2 inside out.
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