In May, a reddit user posted a list on information detailing what Riot Games had planned for League Of Legends the coming months. Lurkers, dwellers and incels on the site were speculative at first, but over the coming weeks the leak proved to be accurate. Xayan and Rakan, the Dark Star Skins, Pulsefire Caitlyn and more all were mentioned in that original post, months before anyone outside of Riot Games knew of their existence.
The newest victim of the leak, Urgot, might have just been officially announced by Riot, but fans have known about him for months. A juggernaut with a meat grinder stomach and “shotgun knees” might have caught everyone by surprise, but those details were already snuck out to the community three months prior. The champion is still awesome looking and it doesn’t diminish any of the awesome work Riot’s creative team did in developing the champion, but it could have been so much more exciting.
The same thing happened with Overwatch’s newest hero, Doomfist. Originally a throwaway line in the original cinematic trailer, the character developed a cult following after the gauntlet's exploits appeared in little pieces of lore around the game. Players started to speculate when (or even if) he would be added to the game, posting theories about who he might be. There was speculation, data mining and even a massive online campaign to get Terry Crews to voice the hero.
In May, a 4chan user who allegedly works on the game’s Quality Assurance team said Doomfist would be the next hero, along with details about the then rumored Anniversary Event and Horizon Lunar Colony Map. The post was right on all three counts, “ruining” a surprise that only a select few should have known about.
Even Hearthstone fell victim to the leak hype-machine. Hours before the launch of the newest expansion, Knights Of The Frozen Throne, a Chinese website released the announcement ahead of time. Blizzard’s PR representatives had to coordinate with each other, translating the post into 14 different languages in time zones around the world. In the age of the internet, where a simple mistake can snowball into a destroyed reveal months in the works, leaks can be devastating. These leaks won’t affect Blizzard’s bottom line, but it does leave a sour taste in their mouths for when the next expansion needs to be announced.
Keeping information about a massive game with millions of players hungry for new content under wraps isn’t easy, there are so many moving parts to keep track of. Designers, artists, coders, programmers and more work on a project like this for months before they get set loose on the internet to judge. If one of those people wants reddit karma or online recognition, they can break their silence and share what they know. Online anonymity keeps them from worrying about the NDA they had to sign and they post away.
Leaks for big-budget video game titles are becoming a normal part of a development cycle. It’s impossible to keep hundreds of people silent on a subject that millions more want to know about. Websites that data mine a game’s code to find new features, like Pokémon Go Hub have become increasingly popular, since anyone with a basic knowledge of code can be the first to find a massive scoop. Players can never get enough new content, forgetting that it takes months of hard work for even the simplest tweak to get made. If leaks continue like this, companies might become more reclusive, sharing their information with less and less people to avoid internet spillage.
I love theorizing what’s coming next in my favorite games, it gives me something to do during a drought in content. On the other hand, I also love being surprised, getting shown something that completely catches me off guard and gets me excited for whatever’s coming next.
How do you feel about leaks? Tell us in the comments.
