Video Game Leaks Are a Massive Problem

Well, it happened again: Another video game publisher has been hacked, resulting in data about their upcoming projects, many of which haven’t been announced yet, getting leaked online.

Now that you’ve read that evergreen introduction, here’s what sparked this article: On Dec. 12, hackers perpetrated a cyber attack on Insomniac Games, the developer behind such titles as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. The hackers demanded $2 million and gave Insomniac Games a seven day deadline. That passed, and now they’ve released 1.3 million files that cover such things as the studio’s video game roadmap for the next decade, details and early footage from Marvel’s Wolverine, and even employee data.

This isn’t the only time this has happened in recent memory. In 2022, a hack resulted in major details about Grand Theft Auto 6 making their way online. Rockstar Games, the company behind the property, shared a statement after saying that they were disappointed that such unrevealed information had made its way online.

Most recently, the highly anticipated first trailer for GTA 6 released early because of a leak. Rockstar devs expressed their disappointment at the footage ending up online unplanned. Even if they were happy for people to finally see what they’d done, they’d been hoping to have it come out in a different way. Many of them wanted to celebrate with their team. The leak took over a narrative that should have been about showing off their hard work.

In the aftermath of the GTA 6 trailer leak, Joshua Stein, who is a Senior Social Media Manger for Xbox, talked about leaks in general on X, saying, something you probably understand intrinsically: They suck when you’re inside a company that’s experienced one. People have spent hours working on the rollout alone in hopes of getting the best buzz for the game possible, and leaks utterly destroy that work. In response, employees often have to work extra hours. Not only do those leaks deprive people of the chance to celebrate, but they also end up causing more work for people.

Those are just two high-profile recent examples. Leaks have plagued the industry going back decades. In 2003, for example, a man named Axel Gembe hacked Valve and leaked the source code for Half-Life 2. As reported at the time by GameSpot, the entire situation was awful to deal with internally. Valve CEO Gabe Newell brought up one instance in which “people started using the game to compose their own screenshots of Dr. Kleiner performing [oral sex] on Alyx. It’s basically your worst nightmare.” Employees were also reportedly disheartened to see that unfinished work had been exposed to others.

Right now, there are a ton of leaks about Wolverine online, and I’ve seen comments about how the game doesn’t look very good. And to really quickly address that: Yeah, dude. It’s still in the super early stages. Companies don’t just build games in an afternoon and then hold onto them for several years. They take time. What you’re seeing was never intended to be seen.

As a person who is, at least nominally, in a profession that requires some amount of creative work that gets exposed to the public, let me tell you: The thought of just showing people early drafts of my work terrifies me. There’s a process I go through to turn a bunch of characters on a screen into something readable. If the first drafts of all my articles got leaked online, I’d be super disappointed and disheartened. I want you to read these words as best as I can write them.

The work that’s out there right now was someone’s work. They were excited about it, and they were excited to show it to you in a way that they could be proud of. They deserved to have that moment of people reacting to their work authentically and learning about them for the first time. They didn’t deserve to see people hating on something that’s half finished.

Hacks and leaks are an absolute scourge on creative industries. They hurt the people whose work we’re trying to enjoy, and they make all of us a bit poorer for them. We deserve the chance to react to things for the first time and feel that excitement. I do, fundamentally, believe that a piece of art has to stand on its own, regardless of any surprise or shock value, but that surprise and shock value is still important to experiencing it for the first time.

Working in a creative industry is difficult. Pretty much everyone is underpaid, and layoffs are a constant threat. People work in a creative industry because it’s something they love to do, and one of the best things is seeing others react positively to what you’ve put into the world. The people who made games like Wolverine, GTA 6, and Half-Life 2 all deserved the chance to put their best foot forward and celebrate what they did.

That’s also not getting into the fact that employee data was leaked. Absolutely no one deserves to have their personal information posted online without their consent. Period. Leaking another person’s information online is revolting.

I wish I had a solution to append to the end of this article. I don’t imagine these leaks and hacks will stop anytime soon. I think all we can do is collectively acknowledge them as something genuinely really shitty and ignore them as best we can so as to make clear to hackers that blackmail doesn’t work. That probably won’t happen. So I’ll just settle for saying: If you worked on Wolverine or any other game that’s leaked and are reading this, I’m so excited to see what you’ve done when you’re ready to show me.