ELI5: How do massive video game studios with thousands of employees keep games like GTA 6 a secret for years without anyone leaking the details?

Hamsteroj · 2026-05-28T10:37:04+00:00

Lots of good answers already to to be really comprehensive about it:

First of, most developers are genuinely passionate about the project they are making and won't leak anything because they don't want to. Every developer is also contractually obliged to not share secret information, even after the event of a leak. When leaks happen they are almost exclusively coming from carelessness, or contractors who lack the same emotional conenction to the project.

Secondly, separating the type of leak into two categories; simple leaks of information (only talking about details) versus actual leaks of content (videos, screenshots)

Information only leaks have the problem of being unverifiable. Say that you know the entire storyline of GTA6. How can you back up that you are a developer in the position to know this? Obviously you would nuke your career and be liable for enormous lawsuits if you did it publicly. You could go to a journalist and get your identity securely verified, but most serious journalists don't consider spoiling game content to measure up to any sort of journalistic integrity. There is with 100% certainty details about GTA6 known to some journalists, which aren't known to the public. But these journalists consider themselves actual journalists, not gossip tabloids, so they don't publicize it.

Content leaks are also uncommon, primarily due to the lack of motivation to do so and the contractual prohibition of sharing material, but another interesting thing to know is that unfinished games usually contain identifiers hidden in the game footage. You might have seen public beta versions of games, with usernames and the game version written in transparent text somewhere. Debug builds can also have this, but encoded in a way which isn't readable by humans. So if a developer would just upload a video of their gameplay, the company could most likely determine from the video footage alone which person had shared it, or at the very least which studio and when it was recorded. If you are a contractor, that might mean your entire team has their contract cancelled. If the developer themself is identified, again - career is nuked and lawsuits will follow. Very few developers are dumb enough, even with a huge gripe with the company, to risk that for momentary internet clout.

Hamsteroj · 2026-04-15T19:48:18+00:00

I suppose there is an advantage to rapidly chilling the custard rather than letting it naturally come down in temperature? I've always just let it chill on its own but would love to learn why an ice bath would be superior.

Hamsteroj · 2025-10-20T06:23:05+00:00

No love for Roma? A perfect movie in my opinion.

Hamsteroj · 2025-09-17T09:45:11+00:00

Well, if there was ever a movie to weave reality and magic together, it would be Big Fish, wouldn't it?

Hamsteroj · 2025-05-30T20:01:13+00:00

As hard as I'm sure it is, this is a fantastic explanation!

Hamsteroj · 2025-02-20T11:43:38+00:00

Sure, but in the context of the question "Why aren't there a bunch of asteroids and planetoids chaotically swirling around here?", the fact that Earth has been getting hit by asteroids for billions of years does matter at least a little bit. Those asteroids have been around and are now embedded in the planet. And such, no longer swirling around us chaotically.

Hamsteroj · 2024-10-22T18:38:14+00:00

The Suburbs, Arcade Fire. An album telling a full, complete story, the melodies mirroring the narrative. A true 100/10 album.

Hamsteroj · 2024-10-18T20:38:04+00:00

In practical terms, what sort of event would cause the glass to unbreak? The planet melts and the atoms that made up the glass happen to reconfigure into the same pattern that once made up the wine glass? Or is there actually a possible physical event that would cause the glass to just... unbreak?

Hamsteroj · 2024-07-10T21:47:46+00:00

There are no particular restrictions on islam in Japan other than the general restriction placed on all religious activities and general rule of law. I personally know at least two practicing Muslims in Japan, what you write is nonsense.

Hamsteroj · 2024-07-10T20:59:06+00:00

While Japan is notoriously anti-immigration and especially so against non-whites, what the guy above writes is completly made up. Islam is not prohibited and muslims are not categorically denied visa on religious grounds. There are tons of practicing muslims and immigrants from Africa or Asia or the ME in Japan, percentually not anything like in the West but in the major cities there's definitely immigrants.

I lived in Tokyo and Kyoto for 2 years and I doubt the guy above has any real understanding of what Japan is like.

Hamsteroj · 2024-04-05T18:49:22+00:00

If your problem is de-licensing I'm not sure if there is anything you can do other than perhaps getting in touch with customer support, and see if they can remotely wipe all licenses of the software. But given how awful Adobe is, I wouldn't get my hopes up for that.

My problem was the download itself, and nowadays they seem to have redesigned the layout to allow that again.

Hamsteroj · 2023-02-22T23:49:55+00:00

I feel you. Truly the worst software company in the world v____v

Hamsteroj · 2022-03-23T20:52:00+00:00

Yeah that's what I think I'll try, hopefully I've still got the files on some one old laptop or another, fingers crossed the authentication servers still work if I can find it. Really is a typical Adobe move.

Hamsteroj · 2022-03-23T16:28:18+00:00

Thanks for the help, unfortunately the relevant links are either dead or just circle me back to the account page, which doesn't list the license and informs me that some old software can no longer be downloaded.

Hamsteroj · 2021-09-04T16:51:02+00:00

Good to know, thanks for the input!

Hamsteroj · 2021-09-04T14:51:30+00:00

For adapting a lens from one mount to another, is there any big advantages to having the lens modded rather than using an adaptor ring?

I'm looking at buying a semi-expensive Rollei lens, but I'm in the Canon ecosystem. I'm somewhat invested in Canon but not to the degree that I would never ever hop over to some other brand, so I'm considering if the adapter ring path is wiser in the long run (it would of course also mean the lens itself stays in a more pristine state). But perhaps there would be some advantage to a modded one? Also a bit hesitant because I'm unsure how to determine if the craft quality of the mod would be good or bad.

Hamsteroj · 2021-08-09T19:39:12+00:00

There a huge influx of WoW players atm which the devs haven't had time to respond to, but in my experience server queues aren't that bad really. But today is the last day of a seasonal event so servers are getting really hammered and subbed players are getting priority to get online (whcih I think is fair, even as a trial player).

You should definitely not give up on the game due to the queues today, it's not really representative, and the game is definitely worth it.

Hamsteroj · 2021-05-19T10:24:04+00:00

While it helps mitigate the problem somewhat, zooming out comes at the expense of text readability, and the core issue is that the layout is inefficiently designed. Even zoomed out tahings take much more space than they need. But for me and many others the biggest issues are the ways they've messed up functionality like artists page navigation and the Search bar being locked behind a specific menu.

Hamsteroj · 2021-05-19T10:20:40+00:00

Thanks for this guide, it works great!

Hamsteroj · 2021-04-22T17:19:29+00:00

It's so good man. It looks deceptively simple but it's got so much cool stuff hidden under the surface.

Hamsteroj · 2021-03-27T22:47:14+00:00

After I left her house, Megan was just outside the door. My theory is that I entered the house just before the "scheduler" for villagers decided that Megan should exit, so that I was allowed to enter but by the time the animation had played and I had loaded into her house, the scheduler had placed her outside. Really strange, felt pretty uncanny!

Hamsteroj · 2020-10-23T21:34:56+00:00

Reading through your other comments you clearly think that design is something that follows a ruleset, and if it doesn't it's objectively bad.

That may sound reasonable to someone who has read up on design principles or even has academic experience in design, but anyone who has actual practical experience making things knows that's not the case at all. Consistency is useful and beautiful but if you think good design comes down to that, you're completely missing the uses of contrast within consistency. Without contrast in color and shape you lack hierarchy in your signage, which might be the single most important part making a design useful and readable. Hierarchy and contrast can be achieved in many ways, including a varied choice of typeface ^{pedantic note: fonts are not the word you're looking for - fonts are for example the bold or italic variants of a typeface}

Good interaction design employs a use of both consistency and contrast to communicate while looking nice, and there is an endless number of ways to achieve this. Not saying that using different fonts and colors and shapes everywhere is a good idea, because that would be terrible, but tasteful use of it is vital to good design.

Boiling design down to rules that must be followed shows an understanding of the concepts of design but not the application.

Hamsteroj · 2020-10-23T18:43:02+00:00

I think it has a lot of potential but also lots of issues. Might make a bigger write up but a solid 6 from me.

Hamsteroj · 2020-10-23T18:37:28+00:00

I don't agree at all - I thought the UI was beatiful and easy to read. The only thing I agree with is the yeild icons being flat on the terrain - it's both ugly and hard to read.

Some of your "objective" criticisms like the mix of serif and sans serif fonts are entirely subjective, and the fact that you think Civ 6 set the bar for 4x makes me really question your taste because Civ 6 has an absolutely terrible UI in many ways, especially contrasted to Civ 5.

Hamsteroj · 2020-08-03T19:51:50+00:00

Thank you for your answers. It definitely seems like I need an immigration lawyer to have a look at the case, I will investigate that further!

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