5 leaks that were as big as the recent GTA 6 mishap

The recent GTA 6 leak has been hailed as one of the most significant and biggest of its kind in gaming history. There is a lot of validity to this claim as GTA 6 is still one of the most anticipated titles fans have been waiting for a long time.

However, GTA players should remember that leaks are not as unusual as some may believe, as there have been other huge revelations of a similar kind; things that have shaken the entire industry before.

So, this article will provide readers with five of the biggest game-related leaks that are very similar in scale to the recent GTA 6 leak.

Note: This article reflects the writer's subjective opinion.

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5 gaming leaks that can equal the latest GTA 6 revelations in scope, ranked

5) Mass Effect 3

This was one of those rare leaks that did not happen because of a hacker trying to steal important data for the game, but rather from a mistake made by one of the developers themselves.

This happened in 2011 when someone from BioWare accidentally uploaded the Mass Effect's beta build on Xbox Live, which meant that anyone could download and play it as well. The size of this leak was about 1.8 GB and was only available for download for a short period of time before it got removed.

However, many Mass Effect fans were still able to play it and witness some of the story details and cutscenes. When this leak happened, it seemed like a major disappointment for BioWare. However, they did manage to turn it into something positive as they utilized all of the feedback they received from fans and improved upon it in time for the official release.

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4) Doom 3

The series dominated the FPS genre in the early 2000s, and everyone was looking forward to the release of the highly anticipated Doom 3. As a result, when E3 took place in November 2002, a demo was shown to fans.

But soon after, the E3 Doom 3 demo was leaked onto the internet and gamers got their hands on an alpha build of the game an entire year before its actual release.

This was a significant leak, as it revealed numerous new aspects that were supposed to be a surprise for the fans, such as new lighting and environmental mechanics. Some of the levels and the intro sequence were also accessible to players.

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3) Crysis 2

Crysis 2 was a highly anticipated first-person shooter video game that was leaked just one month before its official release in 2011. Its beta build was mainly uploaded to numerous torrent sites.

Players were able to to play the entire single-person campaign and get access to many of the multiplayer features in the game. However, the build had a lot of bugs, glitches, and missing assets, which made it really hard for players to enjoy this leaked version of the game.

This was mainly due to it being an incomplete developer's build. Fortunately, this leak did not affect the game's success too much and the leaker was caught later as well.

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2) Fallout 4

Fallout 4 was one of the most eagerly anticipated installments in the franchise. Over two years before its official release, journalist Jason Schreier, who is also a popular GTA informer, obtained critical game documents revealing highly sensitive information such as character descriptions and the game's setting.

All of the highlights were then released by Jason in an article published by Kotaku. Features like audible dialogs spoken by the playable character and the setting being Boston were something that fans of the series never expected, so it is safe to say that this information went viral.

Sadly, Bethesda was not happy about the leak and quickly blacklisted Kotaku from covering any of their future games.

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1) Half Life 2

This Half-Life 2 revelation is arguably one of the most costly gaming leaks that has ever happened, fairly similiar to the recent GTA 6 mishap. In 2003, Valve announced that they would be releasing Half-Life 2 on Christmas of the same year, thus building up a lot of hype surrounding the game.

But in September of the same year, a hacker named Alex Gembe got into Valve's internal network, similar to what happened with the recent GTA 6 leak. He then gained access to their servers and leaked Half-Life 2's early build online.

Because of this hack, fans managed to play the game just a few months before its release and discovered that it was filled with bugs, which made it clear that Valve would have to delay the game. Unfortunately, this prediction came true and the developer missed their Christmas deadline. Valve reportedly lost over $250 million because of this leak.