It’s Only Tuesday, and It’s Already Been a Rough Week for Video Game Leaks

12 May at 19:13 Comment Views: 18

The week of May 11 has been an exhausting marathon for publishers and developers alike, as a flurry of highly anticipated titles surfaced online prematurely. With these leaks occurring in such rapid succession, it is natural for the gaming community to wonder: is something deeper happening behind the curtain?

Over the weekend, Reddit user Dramatic-Track-9935 stunned the Lego gaming community by revealing they already possessed a functional copy of Lego Batman: Legacy of The Dark Knight, which is not slated for release until May 22. The user claimed that a pre-order of the digital edition through Walmart unexpectedly allowed them to download the files and prompted them to begin playing immediately. They were understandably baffled to find themselves in-game a full week before the official launch.

It soon became apparent that this was not an isolated technical hiccup; other players reported that their pre-orders for Legacy of the Dark Knight had also unlocked prematurely. In response, forum moderators urged the community to avoid spoilers, warning that violators would face strict consequences. Many posts that disregarded this mandate were swiftly met with copyright takedowns from the publisher. According to reports from Eurogamer, these unauthorized copies have since been deactivated, and the publisher has fortified the PC version with updated anti-piracy measures.

Another high-profile incident involves Forza Horizon 6, the long-awaited open-world racer set in Japan. Steam users discovered that developer Playground Games inadvertently uploaded an unencrypted build of the title to the storefront. Opportunistic users quickly exploited this vulnerability, causing the Microsoft exclusive to proliferate across piracy sites. The developers responded with a stern warning, promising hardware bans for anyone caught playing early. They followed through, with reports circulating that violators were hit with bans spanning a staggering 7,973 years.

While this threat deterred many, one prominent Forza modder treated the warning as a gauntlet thrown. The leaker promptly uploaded footage to YouTube, flaunting gameplay of Forza Horizon 6 despite their supposed permanent franchise-wide ban. The user, who has a history of such controversies, insisted that the developers were powerless to stop them. However, given the public nature of their defiance, it seems likely that Playground Games will eventually make a definitive example of them.

The latest title to fall victim to unauthorized distribution is Subnautica 2. While imagery from the underwater survival game is currently circulating across the web, the source of the leak remains mysterious. Unlike the other incidents, this occurred just days before the game’s scheduled launch on Thursday, May 14.

Swimming underwater from a first-person POV in a screenshot from Subnautica 2

Despite appearing on pirate hubs, Subnautica 2 is currently sitting at the top of the global Steam bestseller charts. In fact, the entire Subnautica catalog is currently dominating the top 15, with Forza Horizon 6 trailing closely in second place.

With these leaks clustered in such a short window, observers are questioning whether these events are interconnected. Speculation has been bolstered by rumors that Denuvo—a pervasive digital rights management (DRM) tool—was recently compromised in single-player titles. According to Kotaku, some of the groups involved in spreading these leaks are explicitly motivated by an anti-DRM agenda. While Denuvo has not commented, there is currently no concrete evidence linking the leaks to a widespread DRM failure; for instance, Batman: Legacy of The Dark Knight reportedly integrated Denuvo only after its initial leak.

Regardless of the underlying cause, the current sales figures suggest that these leaks have done little to dampen the public’s enthusiasm for these upcoming releases.