Why aren't there leaks for everything?

[DrKelpo]

Sometimes I seriously wonder how anything in this industry is kept a secret.

Take the current discussion about final specs of the new consoles. Of course not every employee has access to this kind of information but there have to be thousands of people directly involved. For example... it isn't released yet what exact type of CPU PS5 is going to use. I don't know if the mass production is already going on, but there is Sony planning the whole thing, there is AMD providing the CPUs, there are probably subcontractors supplying parts to AMD. Thousands of workers are maybe already assembling the machine and it would just take one look at the cpu unit to gather some technical info about the chip.

So you have a lot of people knowing... and these people all have family and friends, which they talk to. I don't mean sharing every detail, but you know... some talky worker, some interested friend... the friend frequently visits reddit and wants the fame for knowing something everyone else doesn't, so a thread is created. Something like that.

So, why aren't we getting (even) more leaks? I know there are gigantic penalties and fines in the contracts for these kinds of things and all parties will do their best to keep this from happening, but is that it? Is it just the fear of getting caught or what am I missing? I know the companies itself, i.e. Sony in this case, want to keep this secret and want to reveal the console with a bang... but you'd think not everybody gives a damn about that and prefers the 5 minutes of internet fame.

 

[SgtCobra]

Ninjas

 

[nsilvias]

because its an easy way to get sued and blacklisted from entire industries if it can be traced back to you.

 

[It’s Time To Go]

NDA's, people who work on their stuff don't want it revealed too early? I can't think what else.

 

[johan]

Not everybody is looking for those 15 minutes of fame on the internet

 

[Dr Pears]

Yeah agreements are probably signed and if you leak something, you're probably gonna lose your job.

 

[Ojli]

I guess most people don't care

 

[funo]

1. not everybody wants those 5 minutes of fame
2. WAY fewer people than you think actually know stuff
3. breaking NDAs is freaking expensive, costs jobs, can nowadays easily be traced and is, generally, not worth it

 

[Deleted member 51789]

Most people have integrity and are professional in a workplace where NDAs and consequences exist if things are traced back to you.

 

[rude]

Because (and I know it's hard to believe) many of the people who work in this industry aren't the kind of rabid, over-excited enthusiasts that frequent forums like resetera; the people working on the PS5 or Final Fantasy 16 or Metroid 5 just treat it like a normal job and go about their day.

 

[lucebuce]

NDAs means bye bye jobs and potentially even a future in the industry.

Also people just generally tend not to leak anything shared in passing by others because they themselves know how shitty it would be if something from their project leaked.

 

[Deleted member 37679]

I've heard that there are people who like their job and the product they re working on. i ve even heard that some want it to be successful.
oh and many aren't 12 year olds trying to be cool by talking about secrets they know.

 

[Mechaplum]

Not everyone is an attention whore(thank god) and actually take their job seriously.

Also for the fact that people who work in the industry sometimes don't want to talk about games with their friends and family, certainly my experience.

 

[Cenauru]

"Fear of getting caught"

More like fear of losing your job

 

[elenarie]

Because luckily, people still respect other people's work. And not a lot of people are looking for those 5 minutes of Internet fame.

 

[Hyun Sai]

Because most people don't crave for attention.

 

[Deleted member 35048]

My question is "Why does everything need to be kept a secret?"

You can know a lot of things about production troubles for the film industry, box office numbers... Why don't we have the same level of info for the video game industry?

 

[Kenzodielocke]

My question is "Why does everything need to be kept a secret?"

You can know a lot of things about production troubles for the film industry, box office numbers... Why don't we have the same level of info for the video game industry?

Click to shrink...

Because they nurtured this industry that way.

 

[gooner4life]

We know it's a zen 2 CPU.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Because most people don't want to risk losing their job and income just to have 15 minutes of Internet fame.

 

[Dwebble]

This goes for any industry.

I work in law, and I know all sorts of sensitive commercial information about clients and deals that I could spill everywhere if I wanted the clout. I don't, because there's no benefit for me, it'd be a tremendous betrayal of trust, and I'd certainly lose my job at the ABSOLUTE least.

 

[GMM]

Because most people in the know doesn't gain anything from leaking such information and there is a probability it could cost them everything career wise, also most people in the industry respects what others are producing.

 

[deadlygantz]

what if i say many don't know what exactly they are working on till the end :)

 

[Burai]

My question is "Why does everything need to be kept a secret?"

You can know a lot of things about production troubles for the film industry, box office numbers... Why don't we have the same level of info for the video game industry?

Click to shrink...

Most people nowadays treat video game press jobs as a springboard to a career in PR in the wider industry, so you can be sure they aren't going to risk burning any bridges by reporting anything that hasn't come directly from the company or asking any uncomfortable questions.

 

[Technesis]

People want to keep their jobs. I'm personally over the secrecy from game companies so my interest in leaks has dropped. I just don't see what value they get in keeping everything a secret.

 

[SayemAhmd]

People are not keen on breaking NDAs, obviously. It messes up a lot of stuff on the publishing end as well as for the leaker and whoever reports on the leak. There are a ton of risks involved.

 

[Deleted member 17990]

Nintendo.

 

[Deleted member 8196]

Because people are not dumb enough to score internet or reddit points

Because people are getting paid to test/develop/market games and they want to keep their jobs.

Because people don't want to get sued, especially if they signed an NDA.

 

[DanteMenethil]

NDA are serious stuff + respecting your industry friends. I have a friend who worked on that EA star wars game (project maverick) and told me a good amount of stuff he shouldn't have but I won't put him in trouble by spilling it on the internets. It's not worth the imaginary internet points.

 

[unicornKnight]

People have actually ethics and respect for their job? If I was working on the new Xbox I wouldn't give any info to anyone. Just kidding, I actually do work on XSX, ask me anything.

 

[Pirateluigi]

Potential negatives:

• Lose your job
• Hurt your reputation
• Get sued
• Be blacklisted from working in the industry

Potential positives:

• Reddit karma?

 

[Plinkerton]

I'm more surprised that people working for third party developers don't leak stuff more. You have to imagine that's hundreds of people working on the next Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty games that know PS5 specs pretty well and yet none of it leaks out. I get there's NDAs and stuff but all it'd take is one person posting stuff online anonymously and it'd spread like wildfire.

 

[More_Badass]

Because most people don't want to risk losing their job and income just to have 15 minutes of Internet fame.

Click to shrink...

More like 5 seconds of mild forum recognition

 

[funo]

I'm more surprised that people working for third party developers don't leak stuff more. You have to imagine that's hundreds of people working on the next Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty games that know PS5 specs pretty well and yet none of it leaks out.

Click to shrink...

People greatly overestimate the number of people that know about the specs of the next console generation.
Only a handful of people working on the games you mentioned actually need to know the specs and only a very tiny fraction of those get the actual numbers (if even)

 

[Khanimus]

People are more interested in being able to keep their jobs than some dumb fame for an internet forum to argue about stuff they have no insight into.

 

[DrKelpo]

Most people have integrity and are professional in a workplace where NDAs and consequences exist if things are traced back to you.

Click to shrink...

I've heard that there are people who like their job and the product they re working on. i ve even heard that some want it to be successful.
oh and many aren't 12 year olds trying to be cool by talking about secrets they know.

Click to shrink...

Because luckily, people still respect other people's work. And not a lot of people are looking for those 5 minutes of Internet fame.

Click to shrink...

I totally agree and wouldn't do it myself either... but you have to wonder if everyone involved shares these feelings of loyalty for the project. And yes, most people have integrity and respect for others no matter at what level along the production they work ... but there are always stupid people.
Also that's why I specifically mentioned friends and family. My post wasn't (just) about people deliberately leaking stuff but also the risk of information getting out unintended seeing how many people are involved.

Looking at a lot of the replies, I also agree that NDAs, the high risk of getting caught and possible consequences probably are enough for most people to not even consider it.

 

[modiz]

My question is "Why does everything need to be kept a secret?"

You can know a lot of things about production troubles for the film industry, box office numbers... Why don't we have the same level of info for the video game industry?

Click to shrink...

game development has a higher likelyhood of cancellations and delays comapred to the film industry, its better this way imo.

 

[finalflame]

You'd really only ever ask this question if you've never worked in this industry before. Not leaking is a matter of respecting your team's/company's work. Leakers are a burden to everyone who works hard to plan releases, and infringe on a company's ability to be transparent with its employees.

 

[Hentailover]

I like how selective people are when debunking OP.

They don't want to lose their job. Yes, a freind of a friend of a friend totally gives a shit about job security of somebody 5 layers of separation from them? People talk and blabber and when thousands are invovled, chances that a tleast a couple dozen of people talked to their friends and then about a dozen of those talked to a friend of their own about it are 100%. I guess better debunk would be the fact that those 3-5 layers of separation people don't have good enough proof to spread the rumor...

 

[elenarie]

My question is "Why does everything need to be kept a secret?"

Click to shrink...

Because of trade secrets, of partnerships being formed and broken based on what is known, of financial implications, and many, many reasons.

Let's just make an example. ANP (fake AMD) are making a new GPU series with Dx13 or whatever support, something futuristic and whatever, something that has not been done yet. They work on this GPU architecture for a few years, put billions in R&D. Rent out venues and schedule a real world event to promote the new GPUs. And then Bob from My Dad's Game Studio goes on Twitter and reveals everything he knows about the new ANP GPU in details.

ANP had actually been planning to reveal two new AAA games during that press event, an exclusive right for which they've paid Steve and His Game Company 50 million $, and Tracy's Game Farm 30 million $, for marketing rights, support for getting new GPU-that-produces-smell features in the game, sending their own engineers to those companies to help with features, and other stuff.

Thanks to Bob leaking and revealing everything, there is now no point in holding the event, as the info is out there. The business relations between ANP and the two game companies are now strained, because the leaks came form ANP's side. The proper reveal of those games has fallen through, resulting in millions of $ of loss for all parties involved (not to mention the missed marketing and PR opportunities).

Thanks, Bob, a real 5 minutes of fame hero!

 

[Deleted member 23046]

I like surprises, so rumours and whispers are enough for me. But to answer your question, the information is also wisely spread to avoid such leak. Not all people actually involved on next-gen creation have infos on dev kit specs but are just working on what is planned for it. Jessica the 3D animator or John the sound engineer doesn't need to know how many CUs devkits have to do their work properly, a basic idea of the hardware envelop or just vague goals are enough until the public reveal.

 

[Zampano]

I think the industry has tightened up a lot in this space. I have a friend that works at one of the big three and he used to give me lots of gossip. These days he knows a lot less as the management of information internally is a lot stricter.

 

[elenarie]

game development has a higher likelyhood of cancellations and delays comapred to the film industry, its better this way imo.

Click to shrink...

This is very much the case. People freak out whenever a game gets cancelled. They really don't want to know how many games and ideas get cancelled ALL THE TIME. :)

 

[Praglik]

Because luckily, people still respect other people's work. And not a lot of people are looking for those 5 minutes of Internet fame.

Click to shrink...

Yeah that's the right answer. I worked on many AAA projects but don't know any developers who would even want to share their work before it's finished.

 

[Zombine]

Chasing clout is a dead end

 

[More_Badass]

I totally agree and wouldn't do it myself either... but you have to wonder if everyone involved shares these feelings of loyalty for the project. And yes, most people have integrity and respect for others no matter at what level along the production they work ... but there are always stupid people.
Also that's why I specifically mentioned friends and family. My post wasn't (just) about people deliberately leaking stuff but also the risk of information getting out unintended seeing how many people are involved.

Looking at a lot of the replies, I also agree that NDAs, the high risk of getting caught and possible consequences probably are enough for most people to not even consider it.

Click to shrink...

Friends and family don't want to get their friends and family in trouble.

like that's probably an even stronger barrier than respect among teams and NDAs

 

[Tunichtgut]

Isnt this a good thing? I really don't want everything to leak, and wanna have a few surprises.

 

[Black_Stride]

1. not everybody wants those 5 minutes of fame
2. WAY fewer people than you think actually know stuff
3. breaking NDAs is freaking expensive, costs jobs, can nowadays easily be traced and is, generally, not worth it

Click to shrink...

And also add that some people in the know just dont give a shit.
Some one working on the CPU/GPU of the PS5 might be in the know about what it is, but they are doing it just as a job and have no reason or even incentive to talk about it outside the office.

When you are building super powerful CPUs looking at the PS5s CPU its probably borderline boring....nobody wants to talk about boring shit.

 

[EVIL]

Sometimes I seriously wonder how anything in this industry is kept a secret.

Take the current discussion about final specs of the new consoles. Of course not every employee has access to this kind of information but there have to be thousands of people directly involved. For example... it isn't released yet what exact type of CPU PS5 is going to use. I don't know if the mass production is already going on, but there is Sony planning the whole thing, there is AMD providing the CPUs, there are probably subcontractors supplying parts to AMD. Thousands of workers are maybe already assembling the machine and it would just take one look at the cpu unit to gather some technical info about the chip.

So you have a lot of people knowing... and these people all have family and friends, which they talk to. I don't mean sharing every detail, but you know... some talky worker, some interested friend... the friend frequently visits reddit and wants the fame for knowing something everyone else doesn't, so a thread is created. Something like that.

So, why aren't we getting (even) more leaks? I know there are gigantic penalties and fines in the contracts for these kinds of things and all parties will do their best to keep this from happening, but is that it? Is it just the fear of getting caught or what am I missing? I know the companies itself, i.e. Sony in this case, want to keep this secret and want to reveal the console with a bang... but you'd think not everybody gives a damn about that and prefers the 5 minutes of internet fame.

Click to shrink...

Most people are not willing to commit career suicide for the lulz. one leak and getting caught, (and you will get caught) and you will never work in the industry ever again plus most likely get your ass sued. There are things called NDA's and they are no joke.

 

[Iztok]

Could be that many leaks are just marketing stunts, and not everyone will resort to them.