If we were still in the realm of games taking "only" nine months to make as it was back in the NES and Microcomputer days, this would be an understandable stance. We're at a point where even Terraria updates have taken two years since announcement (but that may be an issue with project management and scope control.); given that something like MindsEye took 300 million and 6 years and it still came out a hot mess, "competitive advantage" is a little lost on me.

We're no longer in the realm of developers seeing a game like Renagade/Kunio-Kun/Double Dragon and trying to kick a clone out the door.

I guess indifference is indeed the best way to qualify how I feel about all this.

I don’t care about video games marketing, so I don’t care about related leaks either. Unless this marketing is forced on me in some way (CD Projekt Red being a big offender on GOG), then I tend to get angry and boycott the advertised games.

Yeah. I might be something of an old curmudgeon, but I remember and miss/pine for the days when a game was considered feature complete on release because there was only one release to be made; no second tries. Anything extra would be packed into a mission pack/expansion and be considered a nice bonus instead of a rolling FOMO dreadmill.

While I mostly share your sentiment here (with a couple reserves), I fail to get the connection with either leaks or marketing ;)

d3 alpha ati leak: fans super excited, engine did what we were told, people started modding, id pissed, but people loved it & shared it secretly so sites wouldn't get shut down. id finished the game.

or

hl2 leak: ceo didn't reset his default password, someone walked in to the server via the open door, proved game wasn't ready & fans lied to, company doubled down on it wasn't real and game was ready. Fans didn't care game was a lie, people loved it. valve said they wanted to abandon the game & the game they released wasn't what was shown to the public or in the leak (for comparison, difference seemed similar to DNF 03 to DNF 11, or colonial marines promo vs released game)
Leaks worked out good for both in the long run. Better for valve. They got publishers to retroactively downrank doom 3, ignore issues with steam, turned valve in to the walmart or amazon of pc games. id still makes games.

I think I honestly just wandered off into an old man rant. It was late.

Generally a leak is by someone doing the wrong thing, and may even be criminal.

That said, for me it would depend on when the leak occurs in the development cycle. If it is long after, then it could be important enough for the gaming community to know, especially as publishers and financiers don't always do the right thing.

I also put myself in the shoes of a member of the development team, who has put a lot of hard work into a game, only to have it shelved. Perhaps you can just see that as a peril of the Gaming Industry, but it's never right.

Then of course, a leak may be a deliberate thing engaged in by developer and or publisher, as part of some promotional thing, to gain a possible benefit.

We have of course seen many leaks over the years, with the most recent big two I know of being the PC version of Goldeneye and the Duke Nukem game, both of which were canceled ... Goldeneye at a late stage. They were done many years after though.

So it can depend on the nature of the leak too ... software being different to information.

That's one of those irregular verbs, isn't it? I give confidential security briefings. You leak. He has been charged under section 2a of the Official Secrets Act.

That's English for you, a bastard child of French, German, Danish, Dutch, and others that knocked other languages over, rifled though their pockets, and stole the "good" bits.

Leakers sound like... what happens when a developer needs a excuse...

An excuse for?

to leak his game and breathe in the ambience.
allows him to judge b4 release.
if players say it's bad.. "oh it's alpha"
if players say it's good... then you can punish players.

like half-life 2 did.. truth be told i played the hl2 leak.. and the release after.
it was 95% complete.
but clearly missing trailer content. <

oh and bring this up with steam or valve and they just delete the thread and apply a punishment.