Anticipation can be both the enemy and friend of video game developers. While developers can create hype and market an upcoming game by sharing small nuggets of information, it can also lead to those same gamers and hackers trying to unethically obtain information and publicly release it online. This can significantly damage the developer’s reputation and anticipation for the game, and ultimately impact sales.

Most major games that are leaked before release are still widely discussed online because they are a real spectacle and the hackers go to great lengths to obtain and spread information about the game. The titles in this list only include the games that have already been released. Leaks for upcoming games are not included in this list.

6 Grand Theft Auto 5

“You forget a thousand things every day…”

As one of the biggest game releases of the decade, GTA5 was the target of many leaks. Some of them were complete hoaxes, but some were spot on. First, there were false rumors about GTA5 set in Vice City until VG247 hinted that Rockstar was scouting Hollywood as a setting for their next game and confirmed the location.

Later, a casting call was reported for the various playable and non-playable characters in the game. While the characters’ names were changed in the final product, the casting revealed their age, profession, and personality. Some fake gameplay videos also circulated online. Finally, a promotional poster of Franklin with his dog was leaked by a Polish website, suggesting a spring 2013 release date.

A month before the game’s release, people who had pre-ordered it had GTA5 Some game files were available to download from the European version of the PlayStation Store, allowing players to discover the game’s soundtrack and main theme.

5 Fallout4

Kotaku takes the lead

Bethesda’s second major entry into the Stand out Franchise, considering that the first two games and Fallout: New Vegas not developed by Bethesda, was affected by several major leaks before its release.

Initially there were only joke leaks that turned out to be untrue, but the first real leak came from none other than Kotaku, who published their still infamous article detailing where the game is set, the casting document, and many other important details. This happened almost two years before the game hit the shelves. Bethesda later blocked Kotaku, preventing any inside news from the developer.

4 Red Dead Redemption 2

The leak that nobody took seriously

Rockstar has been the victim of many major leaks and their second entry into the Wild West world of Red Dead Redemption was no different. At the end of 2015, a good three years before the release of Red Dead Redemption 2a former Rockstar employee hinted that the studio was working on the sequel. A few months later RDR2′s in-game open world map was leaked and although it differed slightly from the actual map, this was considered the first major leak for the game.

The biggest leak was actually ignored by everyone as it seemed too far-fetched at the time. Rockstar hadn’t revealed any official details about the game, yet a Reddit user /u/reddeadinsider described almost everything about the game, the main character, the plot, and even how players take control of John Marston at the end of the game. It was only after Rockstar released trailers with information about the protagonist and the plot that people came back to this Reddit post and realized how accurate it was, almost two years before the game’s release.

3 Half-life 2

The worst way to ask for a job

Almost a year before the game’s release Half-life 2was more of a theft committed by a teenager named Axel Gembe from Germany. He gained access to Valve’s internal network and was able to leak not only the game’s source code, but also all development files and even an unfinished version of the game.

The leak significantly delayed the game’s release and Valve had to revise its security and distribution strategy. The funny thing is that five months after the leak, Axel wrote an email to Gabe Newell, the president of Valve, asking for a job at the company. However, he was soon tracked down by the FBI and arrested for his crimes.

2 Gears of War 3

Epic games in an epic dilemma

Only a few months left until the highly anticipated release of the third installment of Xbox Studio’s exclusive cover shooter IP Gears of War, its playable version was leaked over the internet. The medium of the attack was Epic Games, and since the leaked version was barely playable, Epic Games soon released a statement saying that the leak was an early version and the final version will be much more polished.

Despite this, gameplay and almost the entire campaign from this leaked version made it onto YouTube. This not only spoiled the game for many players, but also destroyed the expectations of fans due to the quality of the version.

1 Horizon Forbidden West

Alpha Aloy makes an appearance

Months before the game’s official launch on PS5, Horizon Forbidden West A debugged alpha build was leaked online. To this day, no one knows who did this or how it happened, but on December 28, 2021, a downloadable file called “TestGame” was uploaded to PSX, a popular PlayStation hacking platform.

Not only could people download this version and play it on their jailbroken PS4s, but because the version’s debug menu was enabled, players could go anywhere and see things and places in the game that they weren’t supposed to see. Even features that were later removed from the final game were present in this version. The version is still available on the internet two years after the game’s official release.