The Digital Age, also known as the Information Age, is often characterized by the free and quick transfer of information. 

The age of magazines and libraries are slowly becoming a thing of the past. Now, if you want to know something all you have to do is turn on your phone and open Google. We are carrying all of the world’s history in your pocket.

With that being said, we often learn of value information before its intended reveal, especially in the entertainment industry. 

Within the last few years, leakers have become a major part of the film and gaming landscape. At this point it feels like we can’t go a single week without a major leak.

How truly impactful are leaks? Are they really changing the industry?

Let’s first discuss the two types of leaks. First, we have minor leaks. As you probably assume, these leaks reveal a very minor amount of information, such as characters and new in-game features.

Second, we have the bigger leaks, also known as “giga-leaks.” These leaks show off top secret information, like concept art, early builds of games and private business information.

Minor leaks tend to be more common, happening whenever a new game, show or movie is close to being released. 

For example, Marvel’s new show “Agatha All Along” has been the subject of several leaks. Important plots, characters and visuals were posted online before their intended reveal.

Now, it sucks that the show was spoiled; however, compared to other leaks, it isn’t really that big of a deal. No one likes getting spoiled but it happens.

Let’s look at a much bigger Marvel leak: the “Spider-Man 2” leak, aAlso known as the “Insomniac Giga-leak.”

The massive leak reveals all of the games the studios had in development all the way through to 2032, including “Wolverine,” a “Venom” spinoff game and a “X-Men” game.

It all started when Insomniac was threatened by a ransomware group. The group told the studio that they were going to leak confidential files to the public if they didn’t receive $2 billion worth of bitcoin in a week. 

At first, everyone thought that it was a bluff, even the higher ups at Insomniac. However, as time went on, it was revealed that it was no empty threat. 

Countless files were leaked containing early gameplay builds, story details, concept art, important documents, the company’s release roadmap and much more.

One of the details included in the leak was the mention of “Spider-Man 2” receiving story downloadable content (DLC) in the future. Now, let’s fast forward to last week. Insomniac announced the PC port of the game, alongside the news that there wouldn’t be any further update.

Now, we don’t know if the DLC was canceled because of the leak or if something else happened behind the scenes. However, we have seen other projects get canceled due to leaks.

The insomniac leak happened just this year and it became known as one of the biggest leaks in gaming history. That was until a month ago. 

Game Freak, the developer of “Pokemon” games, suffered from a huge data leak, among the trove of data were unused stories, worldbuilding, beta designs, game development tools, earlier builds of games and much more. 

The leaks dated back to the development of the third generation of games, all the way to the sixth. That’s 10 years of development. Ten years of history. 

A lot of important behind the scenes documentation got released, documents that are important for preserving the series development history. 

Preservation of video game history is often overlooked. Every once in a while we get art books and develop vlogs from the big publishers; however, a lot of the time we don’t get that peak behind the curtain.

The leak also exposed the personal information of over 2,600 Game Freak employees, including their names and email addresses. This puts the employees at risk.

The Game Freak leak allowed gaming historians to catalog development history that was previously unknown, as well putting employees at risk.

So, which leak was worse? I know it may be a bit silly to compare leaks. However, they were both of similar sizes. They both also changed the standard of leaking. 

Unlike the Insomniac leak, it seems like Game Freak is planning on canceling any of their upcoming projects. In fact, it doesn’t seem like the information that was released is going to hurt the studio in any major way. 

Game Freak employees’ private information getting leaked, on the other hand, is a massive deal. We also learned which part of the game each developer worked on specifically, which could cause problems depending if they had an NDA. 

The Insomniac leak included very important business documents, everything from financial details, studio contracts, budget details and casting information. 

Both leaks provide the public with valuable industry information, as well as private details that should’ve never been disclosed.

I am of the personal opinion that leaks cause more harm than good. Yes, it’s cool seeing the behind the scenes stuff. However, leaks always reveal something that they shouldn’t.

Leaks hurt the careers of those infected by them. Imagine spending years of your life on something with the intent to surprise others, only for it to be shown off early and unfinished.

The next time you’re looking at a leak, keep in mind who it’s affecting.