Video game leaks nightmare for the development teams and they don't give players anywhere near an accurate impression of what the final product will be like. When game footage or code leaks, nobody wins.
The effects are more than skin deep. It can create barriers between developers and their community, and create increased security and secrecy around projects. Those repercussions go further, sometimes creating a trust vacuum for departments thought to have been the source of the leak. In some cases, it can lead to excessive crunch.
In games, developers are often depicted as being overly secretive of their work, and there are often calls for them to share more of their process to foster development literacy and demystify the work it takes to make a game. Some developers, like those behind, choose to release source code for people to play around with and create their own features. But there’s a difference between creators choosing to release their code and having it stolen.
“Leaking, as much as anything, makes companies less likely to engage, even if the leak had nothing to do with the community at large,” says the AAA developer. “If your house gets robbed, you start putting in locks and bars and cameras and not trusting your neighbors as much, and that’s just shitty for everyone.”