Leaks are often not the complete story. A leak is a snapshot of an in-development game at a specific point in time doesn't adequately convey what the game will be when we're finished - especially since the game is still in development and many things are changing as time passes. New systems and content come online, get iterated on, get improved, and so on and so forth. As we start committing to designs and ideas, we can start optimizing and polishing those systems and content.

Further, leaks are often incomplete snapshots - it's rare for a leak to contain the full view of what we're working on at the time it occurs. Instead, it's often only part of that whole - especially if it's a AAA game with significant scope. It's difficult for any leak to encompass the entire game, because it's rare for any single leaking developer to get the full game - we're all working in our own specific areas and systems, so we don't often get to see the entire game. I couldn't leak about the whole game I'm working on even if I wanted to - I'm primarily working in my game mode and on my game content which I'm intimately familiar with, but I'm certainly not working on the other game modes, cinematics, systems, etc. that we're shipping with. If I were to leak, I wouldn't have access or visibility into that stuff.

In a leak situation it is most likely that the community that sees it will take it in the worst way possible because outrage tends to be more viral than anything else. They won't get to see what we're planning, only what's currently in there. They also won't trust us to continue working because what we've done so far isn't good enough yet. The vast majority of the time, leaks are followed with negative reactions because the leaks don't have the full context and the community is left with only their imaginations to fill in the details. As with most online discourse, the negative will trend as it always does. Those of us in the trenches get to see the improvements we're making and the game come together, but also get to read about how much everybody thinks the game already sucks because of the leak.

How do you think that would make somebody working hard on the project feel about their work? It's painful and demoralizing to see the work we're spending all of our time and effort on actually improving day by day, while getting slagged in public where we know we can't respond or defend it. It's why I always have sympathy for anyone who has to deal with a leak. It really sucks to see people shit on your work without context.

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