6 Biggest Games That Got Leaked Before Launch

The power of video game hype can lead to some very talented people breaking some very serious international laws. Hey, it's Game Rant, and here are the six biggest games that got leaked before launch number six, Grand Theft Auto 5. We're starting off our list with not one leak, but several dozens which come along with producing a game of this magnitude, with early reports discussing Rockstar employees visiting the Hollywood area, presumably for research on the next Grand Theft Auto. Then a series of casting calls with full character biographies came to light, which began the rumors that there would be 3 protagonists. From there, the Internet became obsessed with data mining any and every Ave. of information, including the game soundtrack, being leaked via pre downloads. But who can blame fans for being so excited? After all, it'd been a whole five years since the last GTA. Can you imagine waiting that long #5 Fallout 4? Video game journalism, much like all forms of journalism, is based around information, and granting access to information for the general public is what journalists do. Apparently Bethesda didn't can get the memo, as when Kotaku revealed several key points about the yet to be revealed Fallout 4, including locations, character names, and even potential quest details, the developer acted swiftly. According to an article published a couple of years later, Bethesda had cut all communication with Kotaku afterwards, placing them on a blacklist that would affect their ability to get first hand information and review copies. But in a surprising move, Jason Schreyer, the author of the article, is still supposedly blacklisted by Bethesda as well, despite leaving Kotaku several years ago. Yeesh #4 Red Dead Redemption 2 Let's step back from the hype machine and cast our minds towards the Dow. If a game leaks and no one is there to believe it didn't even leak it. All this philosophical quandary springs to mind when examining the history of Red Dead Redemption 2A game, which could bring the Internet to a standstill with nothing but a screenshot. And yet, all the way in the dark corners of Reddit, a user by the trusty name Red Dead Insider was casually listing substantial details about the gameplay, plot, and even the post campaign options. Internet simply didn't notice until after the game was released, and the original post was rediscovered shortly before the account vanished into the ether. Who Red Dead Insider was, well, probably never know, but we like to think he's a friend of Gavin #3 Half Life. Two games leak in a myriad of ways, which can often lead to debates centered around the morality of leaks themselves, but no one can defend what Axel Gambi did. A young Half Life enthusiast living in Germany took it upon himself to hack into Valve servers and simply steal Half Life 2 files to release on over the Internet a whole year before the game launched. Axel then did the next logical thing and emailed Gabe Newell asking for a job at Val Gabe heavily agreed and provided Axel plane ticket to the United States for a job interview. And once Axel landed, he indeed got that prized interview. Only this one was handled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Whoops. You know, for a name like Axel, there's a strong lack of St. smarts here. Number two, Gears of War three. With the current state of the franchise, it can be hard to remember just how hyped North America was for Gears 43, but a few months before the game launched to conclude the Xbox 360 trilogy, modded 360 systems were already heading into the battle against the Locust hordes. Unlike other leaks on this list, this one quickly caught the attention of the mainstream news cycle where untold numbers of impressions were made. And given the pre release build looked and played absolutely terribly, the general hype around Gears of War Three suddenly subsided. Not completely, of course, the game was still fantastic, but it felt as if the Lancer party had been spoiled #1 Horizon, Forbid and West. Shortly before the end of 2021, a file humbly named Test Game appeared on the Internet, but modders were shocked to discover the entire alpha build for the upcoming Horizon for Midwest on the PlayStation 4. Sure, players could engage with the content, at least as far as it could functionally go, but far more damaging was the debug mode, giving users developer level controls of the game and allowing them to explore areas never intended to be viewed by the audience. Leaks on top of leaks? Well, it just had to earn our top spot. Plus it included a handful of features not even seen in the final game, and even to this day, we still have absolutely no idea who leaked it. Anyway, that's going to do it for this list. Why don't you let us know which upcoming games you can't wait to get more information on in the thread below, and we'll be sure to check out your answers. Keep clicking around here on Gamerant for more lists, and we'll see you next time.