Some of you may have guessed by now that I have spent some time in and around game developers. Occasionally, details about the projects they have worked on has leaked to the general public. While it can be fun to speculate about what a new game will include or where it will be set, real leaks of information can be devastating to a game’s development. I would argue that it essentially ruined the ending of one entire AAA game series. There are some great videos that have discussed the ending to Mass Effect 3 and how utterly awful it was. How could a game series that so emphasized choices and consequences create an ending that completely ignored hundreds of hours of choices and consequences. This wasn’t some creative ending highlighting the futility of man’s struggles for control (although that could have been an interesting take on the series, turning the whole thing into a Greek tragedy). This was just a rushed, hackish end to an otherwise amazing series.
But the ending we received was not the original ending. There is a decent amount of evidence that indicates that the original ending was supposed to involve dark matter. There is one mission in Mass Effect 2, where Shepard rescues Tali, where an entire sun is being torn to shreds by dark energy. It could have been a great ending. But because of leaks, EA forced Bioware to change the ending. Hence the ending that we received. Most leaks aren’t nearly on this sort of magnitude. There are plenty of leaks that have included relatively innocuous information. Fallout 4’s main character has a voice actor, for example. That leak was released to Kotaku months ago, and only now seems confirmed because of the new trailer. Battlefield 4’s DLC release plans were leaked a few months after the game launched. Even now, screenshots of Bloodborne 2 are allegedly hitting the internet and generating buzz. But leaks are a terrible thing on so many levels. First, much of the time the information is incomplete, outdated, or completely false. This may not seem like such a bad thing, but one of the biggest problems of game design is figuring out how to manage consumer expectations. Game developers can’t put everything they want to into a game. There just isn’t enough time to get it all right. So if a leak seems to promise the inclusion of something, and the internet latches on to that, the developer may feel pressured to include that at the last minute, often to the detriment of many other systems in the game. Second, leaks prevent the developers from releasing information in the manner that they want. Often times publishers spend millions of dollars to make sure that the right information, the right trailers, the right events, all happen at precisely the right moment to get everyone excited about a product. And while we may like to believe that a good product will generate buzz all on its own, the total number of games that range from the “good” to “amazing” categories is so large that a single game with poor marketing will get quickly lost in the noise. Lastly, and possibly most importantly, these leaks have a nasty habit of ruining some of the greatest moments in games. For example, would E3’s Battlefield 4 footage have been nearly as impactful if you had known that the skyscraper was going to collapse before you saw it? Would Fallout 3 have been nearly as memorable if you knew what the capital wasteland looked like before you’d left Vault 101? Would The Last of Us have been as moving if you had known what was going to happen to Ellie? I doubt any of you will be in a position to leak information to the press, so telling you not to do it will seem shallow at best. However, I’d think twice before you give in and look at an article saying that it includes leaked information. In the end it doesn’t really help anyone.
1 Comment
JonahtheMann
8/1/2015 03:35:04 am
I have to agree with this, well said. It reminds me however, of when Square Enix announced the Final Fantasy VII remake at E3 two months ago. Before they announced it, siliconera leaked info about the alleged remake, but many people, myself included, did not believe it because this FFVII remake had become little more than wishful thinking that would never come true. Thus, I was genuinely surprised when they did announce the remake.
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The Legendary Carmine
Andrew Clayton (a.k.a. The Legendary Carmine) is SSG's Executive Editor. He toils at the stone to make sure this site brings its readers valuable content on a daily basis. Like what we do? Want to see more? Donate to the site using the button below!
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