Game devs, how do game leaks impact your work?

[sn00zer]

Game devs,

1. What's it like in the office when your game's announcement leaks ahead of time?
2. How do leaks impact your work?

We regularly see the leaks but rarely understand what's happening in the studio when a leak happens.

Previous thread (2019)

Game devs of Resetera, how do leaks impact your work?

Thought I might as well ask the devs out there. Lot of back and forth about leaks and how they impact game development and game devs. So devs of Resetera. How do/have leaks impacted your work?

www.resetera.com

 

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

Whilst I'm not a dev, I do work in marketing and let me tell you; leaks fuck up eeeeeeeeverything.

Some examples;
1) domain registration; maybe we haven't fully completed our domain purchases yet so as not to tip people off what we are making - that opens us up to being squatted.
2) messaging; maybe there is a mechanic that we are saving for reveal closer to release (for example, Cappy in Mario Odyssey wasn't shown until the second trailer)
3) share of voice; maybe the leak comes around the time that we have another product releasing so instead of the consumer focussing on Cool RPG IX, they are too busy chatting on social media about the leak regarding the bullet possession mechanic of Action Hero 4 we have coming out 2 years from now.

There are several more examples from a marketing perspective but these are a few that I have time to write at the moment!

 

[Weiss]

Just wanna watch this thread since I think it's interesting.

I don't really like leaks, I'd rather line up and get excited with everyone else because the rush of excitement and cheering going on is the point of an announcement, but they've always been harmless annoyances to me, specifically. It'll be cool to get the other side's perspective.

 

[Zor]

I've literally been reading through your last thread on this from a couple years ago OP, and the comments from Devs there were truly enlightening.

Game devs of Resetera, how do leaks impact your work?

Thought I might as well ask the devs out there. Lot of back and forth about leaks and how they impact game development and game devs. So devs of Resetera. How do/have leaks impacted your work?

www.resetera.com

This comment in particular stood out:

In my experience, leaks affect the marketing and publishing departments way more than devs like me, they stand to lose SO MUCH MONEY by having their marketing strategy spoiled and its like, several people's ENTIRE job and passion. For me it's just like, at worst people like the game less than they would have if it was presented to them in a cool surprising teaser instead of read off a piece of paper with some early-in-dev screenshots. But even an official announcement can go either way with fans anyway, so whatever. Plus people don't tend to be like "WHO MODELLED THAT GARBAGE TIER PETUNIA BUSH IN THE ENVIRONMENT ART??" so my morale is pretty safe.

The worst kind of leak though is having SOMEONE ELSE'S work (eg: new console/tech info, movie tie in) spoiled through your own studio. That obviously takes down the reputation of the entire studio all because of one person (and it might not even be someone employed there). And not being trusted means you have to make your game with more and more hurdles and less information. Like boy I don't really want to waste half a day getting access to the new super secure vault of reference material I need to do my work, yknow?

Still, honestly this whole thing about these journalists saying "oh ACTUALLY its just an ADVERT why would you be upset about adverts being spoiled?" is a really shitty take and makes me so mad. Of course it's an advert, of course all of E3 is just adverts. Don't bloody patronise consumers, playing the "getting excited about corporate products is so gauche" when you're literally the one who makes that sweet clickbait money off stealing the thunder of these "JUST ADVERTS". And speaking entirely as a consumer/gamer, maybe I just LIKE SUPRISES okay?? I don't hate on journalists for doing their job but don't give me that "ACTUALLY SPOILERS/LEAKS ARE NOBLE AND CONSUMER FRIENDLY BECAUSE NOW WE GET TO TELL YOU WHAT TO THINK INSTEAD OF THOSE BIG COMPANIES" swill.

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[Toothdrinker]

Whilst I'm not a dev, I do work in marketing and let me tell you; leaks fuck up eeeeeeeeverything.

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I left games marketing some point in the pandemic, but this post brought back flashbacks. You spend your job in deep fear of leaks as they can derail so much of what you're doing. At the most basic level, you can make it seem like the publisher / studio / IP owner / platform holder / other stakeholders are not reading from the same sheet, which makes everyone look like idiots. Other times, it forces your hand to show things that you simply aren't ready to show.

Working on unannounced games was always the hardest, as these are often kept within small circles of knowledge internally as well. Code-names, delicate discussions and a lot of second-guessing everything you say is like ambient stress.

I have mixed feelings about some of how "secret" the games industry can be. But with a surrounding fan culture that will dissect every element of anything that gets out there (which can be both good and bad), all public exposure becomes risk-laden to an extent. So, something becoming "news" before the organisations involved are ready will invariably be a clusterfuck.

Also, usually games marketers are very passionate about the industry and the games they're working on. It's oddly heart-breaking for something you've worked ages on to leak before it should have. Anyway, this was about devs so I'll stop flying the marketing flag now ;)

 

[sn00zer]

Just wanna watch this thread since I think it's interesting.

I don't really like leaks, I'd rather line up and get excited with everyone else because the rush of excitement and cheering going on is the point of an announcement, but they've always been harmless annoyances to me, specifically. It'll be cool to get the other side's perspective.

Click to shrink...

I definitely used to love them when I was younger, but as I started working it dawned on me that if stuff I've worked on got "leaked" while we were still in the decision making process it could get wildly misinterpreted. Then when I get back online and see the latest leak it seemed a little gross because the leaker is usually doing it as an attention grab (or potentially a show) while you know whatever dev was working on it is probably having a hell of a day.

That said my opinion doesn't carry to things like work abuses, leak the shit out of that. That is being a "good guy" and "fighting the industry" so to speak, not leaking a game announcement a month before it happens.

 

[Toothdrinker]

That said my opinion doesn't carry to things like work abuses, leak the shit out of that. That is being a "good guy" and "fighting the industry" so to speak, not leaking a game announcement a month before it happens.

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This is a good point, think that's an important distinction. Investigative journalism in to work cultures or development hell are valuable, and quite different to leaking announcements for kudos.

 

[Weiss]

I definitely used to love them when I was younger, but as I started working it dawned on me that if stuff I've worked on got "leaked" while we were still in the decision making process it could get wildly misinterpreted. Then when I get back online and see the latest leak it seemed a little gross because the leaker is usually doing it as an attention grab (or potentially a show) while you know whatever dev was working on it is probably having a hell of a day.

That said my opinion doesn't carry to things like work abuses, leak the shit out of that. That is being a "good guy" and "fighting the industry" so to speak, not leaking a game announcement a month before it happens.

Click to shrink...

Yeah for me it's on two levels, I guess.

Once it's out, you might as well talk about it.

The person leaking it, however, is a nerd. I was in SmashERA three years and it never failed to amaze me how, consistently, someone gets a piece of info and runs with it even when they've got nothing left.

Like you got your cool tidbit of info, I get sharing it; it's fun! But once it's over, it's absurd to me to try and keep up the grift. Let alone just not having it, you're doing this to an audience that would actually watch you physically burn alive and crack jokes about it.

(shoutout to that guy on 4chan who leaked Sora exactly but nobody believed him. He tried like six times)

 

[Shep572]

Frustrating. I remember a new game I worked on getting leaked about an hour before the announce for it. We were all so hyped to see it shown and it definitely took something out of it for me personally.

 

[Chocobo Blade]

inb4 not a dev but

 

[Farlander]

It can be frustrating. People tend to misunderstand the game dev process, and unless the footage/screens they see has clear white box placeholders or something they tend to think of that as the final quality of the game and its mechanics. Which is quite damaging for a game's reputation before it is announced or ready to be shown. Because when you google the game you will see that unfinished game that will dominate people's thoughts for a while.

Ideally if developers are fully transparent with the game dev process that shouldn't be a problem, but there is a catch 22 reason why there tends to be secrecy - people don't take kindly to unpolished footage even if you plop a huge WIP disclaimer onto it (i.e. what happens with Dead Space now).

 

[Zack]

A mixed bag. On the one hand, it's devastating that something you spent months working up to was shared by some slimy eager beaver looking to make a name for themselves. On the other, a lot of people are talking about this thing you're working on.

 

[Deleted member 543]

I definitely used to love them when I was younger, but as I started working it dawned on me that if stuff I've worked on got "leaked" while we were still in the decision making process it could get wildly misinterpreted. Then when I get back online and see the latest leak it seemed a little gross because the leaker is usually doing it as an attention grab (or potentially a show) while you know whatever dev was working on it is probably having a hell of a day.

Click to shrink...

I still enjoy them when they're close to the intended reveal. Seems like a minor thing if a trailer leaks a couple of hours before a conference. It's like your parents letting you open a present on Christmas Eve.

But even as a fan, leaks for games that are months or years out seem unhealthy for the industry and community. The cult of personality that builds up around the one person drip feeding information to fill some void in their self-esteem is a ticking time bomb.

 

[vixolus]

It can be frustrating. People tend to misunderstand the game dev process, and unless the footage/screens they see has clear white box placeholders or something they tend to think of that as the final quality of the game and its mechanics. Which is quite damaging for a game's reputation before it is announced or ready to be shown. Because when you google the game you will see that unfinished game that will dominate people's thoughts for a while.

Ideally if developers are fully transparent with the game dev process that shouldn't be a problem, but there is a catch 22 reason why there tends to be secrecy - people don't take kindly to unpolished footage even if you plop a huge WIP disclaimer onto it (i.e. what happens with Dead Space now).

Click to shrink...

It really is a shame because as someone with a bit of real world experience/insight and basic empathy I would love to see more studios take the Dead Space approach. Their update livestreams have been an absolute pleasure to watch. I've never seen so much of Frostbite in action haha

 

[Marossi]

I work for an outsourcing QA company. Can't tell which game but we had an leak recently on a AAA game and our contractor were quick to point their finger at us until after internal investigation they discovered the leak came from their marketing department.

However, the leak heavily impacted our morale because leadership were suspicious of everyone until the investigation had results. Everyone's job were on the line and we were incredibly scared of losing our jobs if our contractors decided to stop working with us. We had 50+ employees working on this specific game and nowhere for them to go in case the contractor decided to not work with us anymore.

So yeah, things were tense. Leaks sucks for everyone in development. We were pretty sad because people saw the game before it was intended and incredibly scared of losing our jobs.

 

[SickNasty]

The cult of personality that builds up around the one person drip feeding information to fill some void in their self-esteem is a ticking time bomb.

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Naming no names, lol.

 

[Mafro]

The cult of personality that builds up around the one person drip feeding information to fill some void in their self-esteem is a ticking time bomb.

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Preach.

 

[WildArms]

I'm actually curious on the opposite. How does NOT talking about the game you're working on for over a year (before any reveals or news happens), impact your work?

For me, constant waiting for Granblue Fantasy Relink and Blue Protocol.... Super frustrating.

 

[Marossi]

I'm actually curious on the opposite. How does NOT talking about the game you're working on for over a year (before any reveals or news happens), impact your work?

For me, constant waiting for Granblue Fantasy Relink and Blue Protocol.... Super frustrating.

Click to shrink...

Impact nothing really. It's just like any job where you work in a project. Work hours you're free to talk about the game with coworkers that are also working on the same project, however once you're out of office you can't talk about it at all thanks to NDA, not even hint what you're working on.

It's no different than working on, say, an unnanounced new car model or something. When people ask what do I work with I just say that I work in this company that makes videogames, and if they inquire more I just say that I'm on NDA and can't talk about it.

However it's pretty fun seeing all the speculations on ResetEra when you already know what's going to happen or what's going on inside the industry, I do enjoy that.

 

[Zor]

The cult of personality that builds up around the one person drip feeding information to fill some void in their self-esteem is a ticking time bomb.

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Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

 

[345]

my question for devs (and frankly publishers too) would be: how would you be impacted if the basic existence of a project was announced way before anything from it was shown off?

i'm thinking, for example, of how people still get super hyped for upcoming marvel movies even though all of those are announced years before you get to see the trailer, or sometimes even the title. i feel like bethesda leant into this a bit with the elder scrolls V announcement, too — now everyone knows it's a thing so they're waiting for the official drop, not rumours. but i'd like to know if folks on the dev side have strong feelings about whether absolute secrecy benefits them before the initial reveal.

my somewhat biased take is that announcing projects earlier in the process would generally give devs and publishers control of the narrative rather than scrambling to control unofficial and possibly unrepresentative info from random sources.

 

[Bold One]

The cult of personality that builds up around the one person drip feeding information to fill some void in their self-esteem is a ticking time bomb.

Click to shrink...

 

[Nax]

Appreciate the responses.

Leakers suck.

 

[papusman]

my question for devs (and frankly publishers too) would be: how would you be impacted if the basic existence of a project was announced way before anything from it was shown off?

i'm thinking, for example, of how people still get super hyped for upcoming marvel movies even though all of those are announced years before you get to see the trailer, or sometimes even the title. i feel like bethesda leant into this a bit with the elder scrolls V announcement, too — now everyone knows it's a thing so they're waiting for the official drop, not rumours. but i'd like to know if folks on the dev side have strong feelings about whether absolute secrecy benefits them before the initial reveal.

my somewhat biased take is that announcing projects earlier in the process would generally give devs and publishers control of the narrative rather than scrambling to control unofficial and possibly unrepresentative info from random sources.

Click to shrink...

Yes! The extreme secrecy culture around video games is bizarre. I've worked in marketing almost my entire career. No other entertainment industry is like this. Movies and TV shows might keep plot details under wraps, but not a project's literal existence. It's insane, and seems to make everyone's lives much harder.

 

[DanteMenethil]

One reason I think games are way more secretive than movies or tv shows is that the project cancellation rate is way higher in games. Dont want to announce something that has a 80% chance to be cancelled along the way.

 

[Delaney]

They put contracts at risk, they are a massive loss of marketing money, discourage the developers and put an insane amount of unneeded pressure on teams that are unprepared to share the project they are working on.

Unless something leaks to improve the developer's conditions, they should be discouraged. But it seems this forum only understands the words "crunch" and "delayed" when it comes to the gaming industry.

The cult of personality that builds up around the one person drip feeding information to fill some void in their self-esteem is a ticking time bomb.

Click to shrink...

Woo, you served hot tea today.

 

[OldBoyGamer]

I'd go with what was said above. It really messes up marketing and maybe publishing side. The dev team would just get on with what they were doing.

The only impact would be whether there was an extreme reaction to the leak.

A negative reaction could affect the dev team's morale negatively
Positive reaction the opposite

 

[Zor]

i'm thinking, for example, of how people still get super hyped for upcoming marvel movies even though all of those are announced years before you get to see the trailer, or sometimes even the title

Click to shrink...

There's still scope for problems though.

Look at what happened with Edgar Wright and Ant-Man, to the point that when asked recently about adapting The Running Man, Edgar Wright said that whole experience taught him that until he's literally on the set shooting, he'd prefer to never announce any projects he may or may not be involved in so far ahead of release.

One reason I think games are way more secretive than movies or tv shows is that the project cancellation rate is way higher in games. Dont want to announce something that has a 80% chance to be cancelled along the way.

Click to shrink...

This.

More games have started and ended production through cancellation without ever being announced than I think people realise.

 

[Genesius]

I feel like normalizing the dev process (much like the film process already has) would help tremendously. Sure, it will have birthing pains as "Gamers" get used to the idea of seeing early dev stuff, but the more consistently and often that transparency happens, the less the vocal idiots matter and the wind gets knocked out of leaks.

All the stuff I've seen about the most recent dev stream for Dead Space has been positive.

 

[Zor]

But it seems this forum only understands the words "crunch" and "delayed" when it comes to the gaming industry.

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God this is so true.

And being conditioned to hate marketing/PR even though we're literally talking about peoples' jobs and livelihoods being sometimes exponentially affected by these things.

 

[L Thammy]

One reason I think games are way more secretive than movies or tv shows is that the project cancellation rate is way higher in games. Dont want to announce something that has a 80% chance to be cancelled along the way.

Click to shrink...

I don't know the specific reason, but I wanted to look for a difference between movie and TV production over game production, one thing that strikes me is whether or not the outsiders would be able to understand the production just as easily. Like, whereas a film can release a trailer with just scenes that have been completed because "some scenes are made but others aren't yet", when a game isn't finished it may not mean that content is simply lacking but that even the things that are apparently already there are not yet there in the form that they're supposed to be delivered in.

 

[Zor]

All the stuff I've seen about the most recent dev stream for Dead Space has been positive.

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That's already a known quantity though, people already know the game it's building on so there's less risk involved in showing things when it's a faithful remake of an existing product.

Bit different if this was a studio announcing a brand new AAA game where any number of things could affect development, bring change, or in many cases outright cancellation during production.

 

[Marossi]

my question for devs (and frankly publishers too) would be: how would you be impacted if the basic existence of a project was announced way before anything from it was shown off?

i'm thinking, for example, of how people still get super hyped for upcoming marvel movies even though all of those are announced years before you get to see the trailer, or sometimes even the title. i feel like bethesda leant into this a bit with the elder scrolls V announcement, too — now everyone knows it's a thing so they're waiting for the official drop, not rumours. but i'd like to know if folks on the dev side have strong feelings about whether absolute secrecy benefits them before the initial reveal.

my somewhat biased take is that announcing projects earlier in the process would generally give devs and publishers control of the narrative rather than scrambling to control unofficial and possibly unrepresentative info from random sources.

Click to shrink...

Eh, I guess if it's just like a logo or something then I don't have strong feelings one way or the other. I think I prefer people to be surprised at the actual official reveal though.

My problem lies with leaks that has screenshots and vídeos of something that is clearly not final. This sucks because we're hard at work, sometimes crunching, just because we want the actual gameplay reveal to be really polished and get people hyped for our game. When an leak that is clearly pre-alpha footage or screenshot shows up we get really disheartening because this was not meant to be shown to the public yet. Majority of the public doesn't understand gamedev and if they get an pre-alpha footage they will be quick to say "Oh wow this fucking sucks look it's janky and clunky and and and...." when it's clearly not meant for the public to see.

 

[Virtua Sanus]

It can be a nightmare when you are handling titles that are not formally announced because generally speaking each branch of a company is only privy to certain portions of the development and leaks can get tons of people locked out of important resources even if the company immediately knows where the leaks came from. I would not go as far to say it slows down development, but it can add a ton of extra steps to everyones job.

Also worth noting that companies are really good at figuring where leaks are coming from even if it seems extremely vague. I once worked with a guy who told me of a good friend they worked with for years in the industry that wanted some clot in magazines or something. This person leaked some generic stuff about a mediocre GameCube title that was in development at the time and are still blacklisted to this day.

 

[Toothdrinker]

One reason I think games are way more secretive than movies or tv shows is that the project cancellation rate is way higher in games. Dont want to announce something that has a 80% chance to be cancelled along the way.

Click to shrink...

I think it's this combined with the vitriol and entitlement that surrounds a lot of games discourse* just makes the idea of talking about things that aren't a dead cert not worth it. Otherwise you'll just get a ton of "so and so cancelled X game that they promised us, how dare they!!"
(*realise it's not limited to just games of couse, but it can be pretty prominent in this media)

 

[Mórríoghain]

Whilst I'm not a dev, I do work in marketing and let me tell you; leaks fuck up eeeeeeeeverything.

Some examples;
1) domain registration; maybe we haven't fully completed our domain purchases yet so as not to tip people off what we are making - that opens us up to being squatted.
2) messaging; maybe there is a mechanic that we are saving for reveal closer to release (for example, Cappy in Mario Odyssey wasn't shown until the second trailer)
3) share of voice; maybe the leak comes around the time that we have another product releasing so instead of the consumer focussing on Cool RPG IX, they are too busy chatting on social media about the leak regarding the bullet possession mechanic of Action Hero 4 we have coming out 2 years from now.

There are several more examples from a marketing perspective but these are a few that I have time to write at the moment!

Click to shrink...

Communications here.

I hate when these so called "insiders" on Twitter leak shit 2 days before the actual announcement. Like this doesn't serve anyone but them. It's all about that social media clout, we'll congrats you made it known that Game A is will be announced 2 days. And because of that maybe a whole ass communication / GD teams will have to do extra hours to push the announcement early.

Although I should say I have huge respects to journalists who talk about problems in certain studios. That takes a lot of research and sometimes courage if you're taking on a big company and it's an amazing opportunity to shine a light on some issues that people on those kinds of studios might not be able to solve on their own.

 

[Turbocharge]

As a programmer, the leaks usually have no perceptible bearing on my work. I appreciate that it probably makes things difficult for production teams (especially if the Publisher is accusatory about where the leak originated), but a good internal production team will shield the rest of the dev team from most if not all of the fallout.

The title I'm working on at the moment got leaked a while back and the only way I was even aware of it when when our producers emailed around to remind people not to talk about what they're working on via social media.

 

[PshycoNinja]

While leaks don't have a whole lot of bearing on my work, it still can be frustrating. Especially with leaks that can take certain aspects of your game out of context and people will pre-judge and make up their minds on something because of what is reported in the leak. I am also frustrated for co-workers who spent years of their lives trying to build up something special to be experienced in game only for it to be spoiled.

Its also upsetting to see people in marketing now having to work harder and months of their work go up in flames due to the leak.

All around bad time.

 

[slothrop]

God this is so true.

And being conditioned to hate marketing/PR even though we're literally talking about peoples' jobs and livelihoods being sometimes exponentially affected by these things.

Click to shrink...

I do not hate marketers at all. No problem with them or the work they do whatsoever. But I am not going to pretend for one second that I care about keeping information under wraps so they can hit their KPIs easier. This is just entertainment news. If it had public safety implications, then yes sure hold back, but I don't see marketing as a privileged class where information should be held back for that institutions benefit. That just seems exactly backwards to me.

If the entire premise of the job is trying to keep information tightly controlled, yes that's a pain but there is no reason for folks outside your company to decide your interests are supreme on the topic.

 

[Zor]

I do not hate marketers at all.

Click to shrink...

It's not just about KPIs, and it's redundant just making it about that. It's about peoples jobs and livelihoods whether they are sitting in front of computers writing code or working on marketing/PR plans. Leaks threaten all quarters of a game's production and release.

Simple as that.

 

[Marossi]

I do not hate marketers at all. No problem with them or the work they do whatsoever. But I am not going to pretend for one second that I care about keeping information under wraps so they can hit their KPIs easier. This is just entertainment news. If it had public safety implications, then yes sure hold back, but I don't see marketing as a privileged class where information should be held back for that institutions benefit. That just seems exactly backwards to me.

If the entire premise of the job is trying to keep information tightly controlled, yes that's a pain but there is no reason for folks outside your company to decide your interests are supreme on the topic.

Click to shrink...

You had an entire thread of Devs, including me, even if it came from marketing, telling how leaks threaten our jobs and contracts and how we don't like for people to see something that's not even remotely done and still managed to have this take. Unless I'm misinterpreting your take.

 

[Zor]

You had an entire thread of Devs, including me, even if it came from marketing, telling how leaks threaten our jobs and contracts and how we don't like for people to see something that's not even remotely done and still managed to have this take. Unless I'm misinterpreting your take.

Click to shrink...

It's quite extraordinary.

 

[G_O]

I always ask and never get reasonable answer.

who exactly benefits from leaks apart from the leaker gaining attention?

 

[Zor]

I always ask and never get reasonable answer.

who exactly benefits from leaks apart from the leaker gaining attention?

Click to shrink...

I mean... there's your answer.

 

[Bold One]

I do not hate marketers at all. No problem with them or the work they do whatsoever. But I am not going to pretend for one second that I care about keeping information under wraps so they can hit their KPIs easier. This is just entertainment news. If it had public safety implications, then yes sure hold back, but I don't see marketing as a privileged class where information should be held back for that institutions benefit. That just seems exactly backwards to me.

If the entire premise of the job is trying to keep information tightly controlled, yes that's a pain but there is no reason for folks outside your company to decide your interests are supreme on the topic.

Click to shrink...

Read the room.

 

[Roliq]

I'm not a dev but I remember there was an article about how the dev team of Mario & Rabbids got depressed about the initial reaction for the leaks, luckily after the reveal and release opinions changed but i know that it must be hard knowing that everyone was hating on something you are working on before you could even show it

Edit: I managed to find it https://www.gamespot.com/articles/mario-rabbids-kingdom-battle-leaks-were-discouragi/1100-6452296/

 

[Oneself]

I'm not a dev but a music composer / producer and I think it's very similar between different types of art. An unfinished song can be missing very important elements that only you know will take the piece from good to great. Most people won't "get it" as they don't deal with WIP stuff and even if you explain it the best you can, no one can hear what's in your head.
Same for an unfinished drawing or 3D model etc.

Edit: so yeah, the point is it sucks and can be frustrating / demotivating.

 

[Marossi]

I always ask and never get reasonable answer.

who exactly benefits from leaks apart from the leaker gaining attention?

Click to shrink...

No one aside from the leaker and the Gamers(TM) that NEEDS their dose of leaks to have hot takes on a WIP product.

 

[Multievolution]

As an outsider who's in the past no doubt appreciated some form of leaked information I can definitely say I'd be happy to just not do that anymore, not only does the idea of something you've worked on being shown without consent or context seem really bad but then you've got the people who come under fire from it, I wouldn't be surprised to hear a project or two that got leaked ended up getting scrapped because of reception or even trust.

It does now strike me as strange that leaks seem to be so widely accepted when you factor in what they are too, very suspicious.

Last note I'd put out there as has been mentioned I do wonder if there's a way that some games can make leaks redundant, heck the marvel movies infinity war and end game specifically went out of their way to shoot fake scenes didn't they? Wouldn't be as viable here though I'd wager.

 

[slothrop]

You had an entire thread of Devs, including me, even if it came from marketing, telling how leaks threaten our jobs and contracts and how we don't like for people to see something that's not even remotely done and still managed to have this take. Unless I'm misinterpreting your take.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I stand by my take. I just don't think it's important from the public's point of view to maintain a company's secrecy. Of course any orgs themselves don't like it when info gets out. I don't dispute that -- they wouldn't have secrecy if they didn't like secrecy. They set the whole internal structure around info control to begin with so of course they want to maintain it and it becomes self reinforcing internally. If you are a third party though, I just don't think you should particularly care about the org's secrecy policies or whether they like it or not. This doesn't mean I'm pro guy-with-an-ego winkingly sharing oblique hints to get internet points -- those annoy me more than anything. If you know something, write a full report and move on. Nor should anyone breach contractual obligations either.

If you find something out as a third party, I do not think there is any reason to be beholden to a companies preferred messaging posture and keep it quiet. This is a generic sentiment I have toward corporate or government information of any kind anywhere of any source that is a not a public safety hazard or abusive in some way -- nothing special about video game businesses.