How do things get leaked?

[Buccura]

I hear all the time about leaked gameplay footage, leaked screenshots, leaked movie clips, leaked this leaked that, but how exactly do things get "leaked"? Do they sometimes intentionally slip out or does someone hack into their database or does some disgruntled employee decide to release things without the consent of their employers?

 

[Marter]

More than likely both occur.

Sometimes the company wants to give the public a slight bit of insight regarding their upcoming product.

Other times employees do it on their own.

I'd be willing to be most "leaks" are intentional though.

 

[Small Waves]

Things like screenshots, trailers, etc. are (supposedly) uploaded days before they are officially released on sites.

 

[The Maddest March Hare]

A lot of "leaks" are teasers that were made to look unintentional so they can be removed very fast. The faster an image is put up and removed, the more people are going to discuss it. Perfect advertising.

Then there are accidental leaks, such as the Hayley Williams thing a few days ago. She accidentally sent the picture to the wrong place and it resulted in a lot of rather..happy..fans. Especially the guys. And the girls who are, shall we say, unconventional.

And finally, yes, there are the leaks caused by an employee getting fed up and posting it somewhere.

 

[Katana314]

It's said Meet the Spy was unintentionally leaked; Valve failed to understand the functioning of the "Private" feature for uploading YouTube videos, and gave themselves an achievement for it. Plus, you can see a few aspects of the final video were changed when the real thing came out.

 

[dududf]

I blame improper maintenance of pipes.

 

[reg42]

It's usually intentional, to generate hype. It works too.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

Probably spec ops. agents from the magazines enter in thru a heli drop at the top of the developer studios. After flash banging and tazing the employees, they move onto the computer systems and files. Upload all they can and get out of there.

What...it could happen

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

A lot of "leaks" are teasers that were made to look unintentional so they can be removed very fast. The faster an image is put up and removed, the more people are going to discuss it. Perfect advertising.

More importantly, the information can be denied if it proves unpopular.

Leaks are a good way of testing public opinion of something before openly committing to it.

 

[The Maddest March Hare]

A lot of "leaks" are teasers that were made to look unintentional so they can be removed very fast. The faster an image is put up and removed, the more people are going to discuss it. Perfect advertising.

More importantly, the information can be denied if it proves unpopular.

Leaks are a good way of testing public opinion of something before openly committing to it.

Exactly, it's a great mix of hype if it goes right, and cover up if it goes wrong.

 

[Tharwen]

Generally, the company decides to release information as cryptic marketing (example: The iPhone 4G) or an employee sells the information to a third party (example: Um... most situations where information gets leaked).