Are Tech Leaks Real - or Just Marketing?

[00:00:00]

Mikhail: All right, welcome to the Web News. Uh, so today we're kinda like searching for a topic, and yesterday or a couple days ago, I saw that the GTA VI gameplay footage, some GTA VI gameplay footage was leaked, and I just wanna have a general conversation around, not just like GTA leak, we'll talk about that a little bit, but in general about tech leaks, right?

Like, what is... What do we feel about it? Like, is it sometimes done on purpose maybe, right? Like, it, it always feels weird that like iPhones right before they come out are always leaked and same with Google Pixel devices. Like, how is there someone that's constantly like feeding information to tech media? A little bit sus.

Um, and then in general, like, what do we feel about leaks? Like what-- Like do, do they h- do they help sometimes? Like, are we waiting for GTA VI to get leaked? Like, can we not just wait a little bit longer to see the gameplay or play it ourselves? Like, why do the people even do this? But yeah, that's, that's kind of like the preamble here.

Essentially with the GTA VI leak, I have it up on the, [00:01:00] uh, on the screen share if you're watching this video instead of listening to it. But what happened here was a group apparently claimed responsibility. I'm not gonna give them any publicity because I don't really like what they're doing. Um, and I don't think they should get it.

But essentially, they found some footage probably in some sort of internal way, and now they're piecemeal leaking it out on X and other sources. Um, and with the, with the claim that w- of what they're saying, they're doing this because GTA VI has not committed to a physical media format for their game. So they're releasing a case, I believe, with just a digital code inside of it. Um, but you're not getting a disc or anything like that. so that kinda sucks for some people, and I get the frustration, but I also that this is a little bit overstated and overblown. Like you can't... You shouldn't be doing like some pretty severe illegal shit just because you disagree with a decision that a company makes, in my opinion. [00:02:00] Um, yeah, like I'm wondering, I'm, I'm just gonna pass it off to you, Matt. Like what, what's your take on the GTA VI leak? I know you said you didn't really look at any of the footage. Is

Matt: In, in, intentionally.

Mikhail: Yeah. Okay

Matt: intentionally 'cause I don't want the spoilers.

Mikhail: Mm-hmm.

Matt: I also saw, like, very bits and pieces of the first leak, which was I think a number of years ago now, which showed it running in a very, very sort of technically compromised way 'cause it was under construction. It effectively showed a construction zone, and it prompted other game devs to share their sort of construction zone pictures and videos of games, of their games that were already out but running in the past, you know, running, you know, a year before launch or two years before launch and things, just to show people like, yeah, like, when things are under construction, they're under construction, 'cause some people were absolutely like, "Man, this game looks like it runs like garbage."

You're right, it does 'cause it's not done. It's not completed. Um, so w- in one way I'm not really a big fan of [00:03:00] leaks in general. Um, that doesn't mean that I'm necessarily going to not watch... I'm not gonna, like, avert my eyes from absolutely everything, but I don't, I don't seek out leaks certainly. Um, uh, I worked for BlackBerry back in the day.

I know that they weren't fan o- a fan of leaks. There was, like, a lot of reasons for that. They mentioned it a, a bunch of times, and I kinda, you know, I buy into it. And, uh, a lot of it is because, like, a company wants to be able to control their own destiny when they, when they show off a product. They wanna show it off at the right time, at, at the, the most exciting time or the most crucial time, or present it in the most crucial way, or they want it to be a surprise.

And once it's leaked, many of those options are off the table, or at the very least, people are gonna be kinda rolling their eyes being like, "Yeah, we know this and this and this. Let's get onto the other part of the presentation that didn't leak," right? Where, where we'll actually listen to that. And I, I've always kinda thought that that sucked, especially for marketers and things like that.

Um, so [00:04:00] there's that. And I mean, outside of the GTA VI leaks, I mean, I'm starting to see leaks of the Fallout show, and part of the fun of the Fallout show right now is talking about where we think it's gonna be held. Like, we know bits and pieces. We have some information, and I've seen some leaks, and it'll just sort of...

Again, I'm not seeking it out, but it comes to me on something like TikTok, like a feed, like a doomscroll feed where things are fed to me, and I see it, and sometimes it's just an image, so it's like, oh, immediately even though, even if I'm trying to avoid leaks, like, I just saw that. And then you start talking to other people, and other people have viewed the leaks, and My, my point is, is that I'm not gonna be seeking out leaks.

I'm not the biggest fan of it, but leaks are everywhere. They're all over the place, and they're almost, they're almost unavoidable because people are gonna be talking about it, and I'm not gonna go to my friends and say, "No one talk about leaks." Right? I'm not gonna go to these people on TikTok and, and, you know, report them and attack them [00:05:00] or whatever for posting leaks.

It's not where I'm at. I just... I'm at a point where I wanna be surprised by products, and I want it to be shown to me, and I do like watching a good technical or, in this case, gaming presentation. Like, I like them to reveal things to me in stride. And they have a, a reason, a method to the madness, and whether it works out or doesn't, for better or worse, like, I would prefer to see it in a sort of presented way.

I like, I like being presented to. Like, show me, you know, show me the next Fallout show in a trailer. Show me, you know, GTA in a trailer. Show me GTA when it's out. You know, have streamers do their thing. Um, have, uh, YouTubers do their thing. Uh, you know, get... Show it to me in, in a way that Rockstar wants to present it, especially with a project like GTA VI, where it's been in, in the works for so long.

Like, I get it. The hype is real. People wanna get every ounce of information about it, and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna fault people for wanting as much information as [00:06:00] possible. But again, personal opinion, not a fan of leaks really

Mikhail: Yeah, I don't, I don't get much entertainment value from the leak. It's just, it seems very informational usually. It seems very piecemeal. Like this one s- I, I have watched, like, you know, a 10-second clip, uh, that 'cause it was, again, similar to your situation, it was just scrol- like, I didn't even know about the leaks and all of a sudden I saw the, the clip and it started playing, and then I, and then I read about it, and I'm like, "Oh, okay, so it's, like, this is actual footage." And it's all, like, bl- slightly blurry, like, it's just not the way that I would wanna see any of this content. It just seems useless to me. It doesn't like, you know, make me vividly angry or anything like that. It's just, I don't know, like I, I don't get the, the whole hold-up on to get all this footage or trying to take a picture of a phone that hasn't been released.

Like, just move on. Like mo- there's so much stuff out there that, like, we don't need to know every little thing that's coming out. Um, and like I'm, I'm... I've come to the realization as [00:07:00] well that I don't even like trailers as much anymore, especially for content that I'm already going to be seeing. for example, like, you know, uh, the Avengers movie that's coming out. Like, I don't need to see a trailer for that. gonna go see it, right? Like, that's going to happen. I don't, I person- I'm not saying not every- like everyone, but I personally don't need to see a trailer for that. So I usually ty- typically tend to avoid trailers for stuff like that. The only time that I'll watch a trailer is sometimes, like, a game because trailers, especially gameplay trailers, like I wanna see what the gameplay looks like. A lot of times I will watch that. also for content that I'm not aware of, Like, if I don't have a good idea of what movies are coming out, sometimes I'll watch a trailer for something I have literally no idea about, right? S- just to get, like, some idea what, what's going on. But I ki- I like being surprised.

Like, I don't know, like it, it just seems that trailers and, and, and stuff are also being packed [00:08:00] with so much content to try to, like, sway the viewer, that a lot of times there is spoilers in them. There is things that would've, like, maybe not intent- not like big spoilers, but stuff that would've been nice to have been surprised by in the movie. I think a, a primary example of that, uh, is the Project Hail Mary stuff. If you haven't read the book, before, and if you haven't watched the, or if you haven't watched the movie before, going into that blind, I'm not gonna name anything by the way, I'm not gonna spoil anything, but going into that blind would've been a much better experience, I think, than even watching the trailer. There's certain movies that the trailer literally, I think, diminishes the experience. So I don't know, leaks in, on the same, on, are on the same breath for me. Like, I just feel like they're a nuisance. They're not very interesting, so I don't get the, the hype around them that it does always drive

Matt: Well, the one thing that I'm finding, and I don't know whether it's just me becoming agreeable in my older age or something like that, but [00:09:00] I know as a kid I used to be all about not leaks necessarily, but I would wanna know every ounce about a game as it was about to come out.

Mikhail: Угу

Matt: know everything about it, every possible thing, and that would include leaks.

I would as... Again, as a younger kid, like a teenager, I'd wanna know everything. Read the, read the blog posts, watch the trailers, watch the leaks, watch the, the very limited YouTube content that would be created at that time in comparison to now where there's tons of YouTube content, tons of streamer content.

I would want as much information as possible. But then what ends up happening is it starts... Like for me personally, it's like, it's almost like I've been here before. Like when I'm in that game or I'm in that movie and I'm watching it, it's like, "Oh, I've seen this before. I've, I've been here before." Or you're waiting for the big joke, like they always do the b- one of the biggest jokes, if not the biggest joke from a, a, a comical part of a movie and I'm like, "Oh, like they're in that bar.

Like here comes the... Like here comes the knee-slapper." Like, you know, [00:10:00] "Ha ha, that's funny. I've seen this 40 times in front of another movie." Uh, and so I just don't need it. Um, I mean, this is a small personal story, but uh, I am in the same boat with you with movies, however, I now check what they are because, uh, I was told to come...

I, I went completely... I had no idea what this was. I went with a friend, a group of friends to go see, uh, The Shape of Water, and I didn't know what that was. And I don't need to see... If you like The Shape of Water, fantastic. That's not my type of film. I don't need to be talking about fish dick. That's just the, that's just the reality behind it.

I know there's more to that movie. I don't need to see that movie. That's just not my... That's not my bag. If you love it, fantastic. And my friends when we la- left were laughing their asses off. They were... 'Cause they knew. They're like, "Matt, how'd you like that?" And I was like, "Why was I here? Why was I here for this?"

And so now people will be like, "Hey, you wanna go see a movie this Sunday or something?" I'm like, "Yeah, what's the title?" Let me [00:11:00] just do a little bit of a synopsis here and see to make sure it's not, you know, just about fish dick. So like there's, there's that. Like

Mikhail: c- can I, can I pr- propose like a, a, a, a straw man for the other side? you didn't do that, if you did that for Shape of Water, you would never have had that story and that experience of not liking it that much.

Matt: Odd

Mikhail: like as long as that's not happening on a consistent basis, every once in a while going to see a movie and just not liking it is just part of the experience, and it's okay, and it actually kinda adds to the experience of a good movie.

Whereas if you go in knowing that you're gonna like a movie every single time, like your expectations start to differ and like you, you start... Like, it just becomes bland and boring. I, I don't know. I, I do this as well, by the way. I'm, I'm like, I should, I should... Like, I'm not practicing what I preach.

Like, I do the same thing. Like, I go in and I make sure that I'll like the movie 'cause we have a limited amount of time. Like, there are arguments the other way obviously. But I... Before we would j- I would [00:12:00] just watch random movies on TV,

Matt: That's true. Yeah, that's true

Mikhail: of them I didn't like, but I still watched them and I still got something from it, and it was kind of...

It always made kind of a funny story when I would talk about the shitty movie that I saw on TV. So I kind of, I kinda miss that a little bit. I don't know. I don't know why we went down that tangent, but like I, I don't know.

Matt: But it's... You know what? You know what, though? It, it, it leans into this conversation about leaks, where, like, leaks are yet another bit of information that comes out either during something that has already released or, in this case, the GTA VI case, GTA has yet to release, and so it's a leak, you know, sort of showing things that we've never seen or whatever.

'Cause sometimes a leak will come out later. Like, it'll be like development footage gets leaked, but the game's been out for 10 months or something like that, and we get to learn more about the development cycle or what have you.

Mikhail: Yep

Matt: and the thing that sucks is, like, you are right. It's like I used to go to Walmart, buy, like, an old video game, just kinda read the back and be like, "All right, cool.

Go play it." And be like, "Damn, that was, that was horrible." But there'd be a couple where I'd be like, "Man, that was awesome," and I still remember those to this day. And, like, that's the, that's the [00:13:00] question. Like, it... M- Mike, I don't know if you're, if you want to, but you're sharing your screen. Are you, like... Y- y- are you...

Mikhail: had a little pressed on me.

Matt: click your current location. Click your current location. Let us all know where, where exactly you are, and the, you know, any other mailing information. Give us your postal code.

Mikhail: Yep

Matt: But, um, no, like, there is, like, l- little mystery now, and so, like, that is,

Mikhail: Mm-hmm.

Matt: like, a personal point is that there's little mystery left before something comes out.

But, I mean- I, I just, I just like having it to be presented to me. Like the, the company's gonna want a, a marketing cycle and unless their marketing team messes up, which is, you know, possible, like we've seen games, games and movies come out when it's like I didn't even know that came out. You know? That's a failure.

But something like one thing a, a game to me, uh, that, that stands out in this case is, uh, Dead Rising. Now I don't know if the original Dead Rising had any leaks. This is before I had reliable internet. But I remember being, you know, just in my friend's [00:14:00] house, we had the TV on and like the, the commercial come, come, comes on and it was like, you know, you're in a mulf- mall full of zombies, anything is a weapon and it, it, it just sounded awesome.

And I was like, "Well, I'm buying that" and I did and that was it. But having been shown the gameplay of Dead Rising, it's a lot kind of a little bit slower than I expected especially as a kid. It's a little bit different. I didn't expect like the same sort of like, uh, boss battles. I didn't expect the same sort of like the shooting mechanics and things.

However, because that, that marketing department sold me, I bought it, I've played all the Dead Risings 'cause I like it. It's like it wasn't... You know, at first I was kinda like taking it back and was like, "Oh, I don't know about this." But then I, you know, multiple playthroughs, playing it through 'cause it, that's a game where you're kinda supposed to play it multiple times.

Play it through multiple times. Some of the places start becoming iconic, whatever. Second game comes out, third game comes out, et cetera, and you're like, "All right, yeah, like, like, you know, I'm a fan of the series." Like, and it was because [00:15:00] of that commercial and that was presented to me. But if I had seen Dead Rising and its slow gameplay but in an even more broken way, like in a, you know, there's like analytic stuff firing in the background and there's like things all over the place on the sides of the screen, right?

Where it's... And the frame rate's really bad and things. It'd kinda ruin it for me. Um, but there's one other thing that we wanted to tou- touch on which is like whether leaks are ever sort of intentional because we hear this as almost like a rumor where people say, "Oh..." Especially with cellphone companies or with tablet companies, like consumer electronic companies.

It's like, "Oh, they intentionally did this," right? They intentionally left that new iPhone at the bar. They intentionally had that iPad out on display and somebody noticed it and took a picture of it or whatever. It's not just Apple, but I just zoomed in on that for the sake of conversation. I think has it happened where it's been intentional?

Yeah. I would say more often than not, it is not that case though. [00:16:00] It's probably because a lot of the phones, devices, consumer electronics we have right now are just more or less slabs of glass, that it's probably like a staffer that's just using that phone internally that really isn't supposed to bring it outside yet, and they're just like, "Ah, no one will notice."

And, or even just an accident where they're just like, "Oh, I'm just gonna use my phone out," not realizing or not thinking that they're using the new iPhone. They're out and about, they forget their phone or whatever. Like, how many forgotten phones happen at bars across America in a single night? Probably a lot.

You know, we don't have like, you know, 200 reports of like lost iPhones, but we will have the one... Like, there's gonna be a chance of one of them being the new iPhone. Because, I mean, again, having worked at BlackBerry, people were using pre-release devices for months, sometimes lo- like sometimes a year before it actually came out, and they would use it as their personal phone.

They would use it all the time, yada, yada, and like, they were, they were supposed to keep it secret. Like, you, you do not show this in public, right? And, and it... But it's a phone.

Mikhail: Yeah.

Matt: [00:17:00] a memory lapse, well, a memory lapse is so easy. Like a memory lapse, you accidentally pull it out at a bar, someone notices it and goes, "I've never seen that camera before," takes a picture.

Now it's a leak. So I, just me personally, yeah, sure, maybe some, some tech leaks have been, have been real, uh, have been intentional, excuse me, where they're almost not a leak at that point in order to like drum up the news. But if Apple or anyone, Samsung, even a smaller company comes out, the news is always looking for something new.

Unless you release it on a day where there's other bigger news, like if you're like, "I have a new video game," and it's on the day GTA VI releases, you're gonna get buried. But if you're like, "I have a new video game," even as an indie dev, you're gonna get some coverage, uh, a- assuming you time it correctly.

Like the news is gonna cover you. You don't need to have it leak.

Mikhail: Yeah, I mean, for those people especially, the leak would, the leak would give them nothing, right? Like, upon purpose. So it would make sense that it wasn't leaked. The only caveat, like, the only thing that I will say is I've [00:18:00] seen these leaks, and es- I think this is especially prominent on Pixels, where not just the phone leaks, but the marketing material leaks, like, well-presented, and it just seems like... It seems... Like, why was the marketing material being leaked? Like, that, uh, that seems weird to me. Like,

Matt: Why is, why are you being informed so well?

Mikhail: why am I, why am I now being informed in a very, like, colorful and well-presented way before this, this thing releases? Um, that to me seems like they just wanna be part of the news cycle for a little bit longer than they are going to be.

'Cause they're obviously gonna be part of the news cycle, like you're saying, if they release it. But maybe they want that extra little bit, you know what I mean? To have that tail to, to lead into the release so that they have this hype that's building and stuff like that. So I could be wrong on that, I'll say that right, right off the top.

It just seems to happen very consistently and in, in a, in too much of a structured format for it to be coincidence every single time. Or like, you know, like if [00:19:00] the... If... Or maybe they just don't care, and so, like, the s- none of the staffers are even bothered to, like, protect that stuff. Like, that's another option.

Like, I, I don't know. Like, it just seems to me that there would've already been ramifications for whoever's doing these leaks on a consistent basis that, uh, if the company cared. I don't know

Matt: It is a good question. Like it, I mean, there's, there's way... Like, how are we gonna stand out, right? If everybody has a new device come out and everybody has like the sort of standard, "Hey, we're gonna do a press release one day," or, "We're gonna do a social media post," which is more or less a press release at this point, 'cause the press will cover posts on X and posts on Blue Sky and wherever else.

Um, I mean, I get it. Like I, I, I, I get it. Like, like you're trying to stand out. How do you release your product is a good question. If everyone's just doing a press release kind of in a, in a vanilla way, like it's a vanilla way to release it. Like i- is it possible that someone is intentionally leaking it in order for it to be like, "Ooh, this is almost like restricted content.

I'm [00:20:00] gonna go take a look at this."

Mikhail: Yeah

Matt: Maybe that's your creative flair on releasing your product. It's possible. It's, it's, it is, it is possible. However, if it's found out that it's intentional I mean, is anything a leak at that point? Like, yes, like there are gonna be some things that they specifically do not want people to know that are leaks, but, like, I, I have a feeling we're gonna have a field day.

Like, people are people internally are gonna have a field day selling leaks 'cause they're like, "Oh, this company doesn't care about leaks anymore." Right? I- that's just my two cents. That could be totally off base.

Mikhail: Mm-hmm.

Matt: But, like, once the le- or, or it'd be like, is this actually a leak, or did Google just say it was a leak?

Is this just, like, the way that Google advertises? Like, I feel like it's a slippery slope if it's done too much, or if it... I mean, we don't even have a confirmed case of it ever being done by Google, but, like, if, if they did it for, like, the last two Pixel phones or something, and then on this Pixel phone we get an identical leak, it's like, [00:21:00] okay, well, that could be, like, a specific staffer or a specific team is leaking it 'cause they always have the materials given.

However, you know, this is really convenient, and why isn't that team being locked down, and why aren't they taking measures? So it does beg a question. But then again, if it's, it, once it gets found out that it's not really a leak

then what is it? You know what I mean? Like it, it's just, it goes into a gray area, and then it kind of loses, like the luster of intentionally doing a leak is that it, it feels like, ooh, I shouldn't be looking at this, but I am, right? I'm looking at something that's like behind closed doors. This is internal material.

This is why I want to look at this. I'm getting a, I'm getting the, the, the, the hot scoop, the, the new scoop, right? The fresh scoop, whatever

Mikhail: Mm-hmm. I don't know. Yeah. I don't... Hopefully this was interesting. Um, but I... It's just weird. Like, it, it, these, these leaks are always by weird, [00:22:00] mysterious stuff. like especially this GTA VI one is, like, why? I mean, yeah, I, I get it. You know, you know what the other thing is before, before we log, clock off is, um, thought this was because they decided to release it on Netflix, and I would've been almost more understanding of that excuse, uh, if they were to take, like, the Netflix release and just release it on It's still weird, and I still wouldn't watch it probably, like, that way. I don't know. Like, it, it's still weird. But, like, it is weird that they are releasing their trailer on Netflix behind the subscription, I believe.

Matt: That's right. But it's only a six-hour advance

Mikhail: Yeah, I, I just find that weird. Like, why would they do that? I, I... Just weird. Nothing like... You know, it's not a big deal. Like, a six-hour advance, who cares?

Matt: I, you know, but here's the thing is like it, it's a good question. Like it's a good question. Uh, I've do- I've dove into it on my gaming podcast, Stay One Patch podcast. We've [00:23:00] dove into that because like, you know, is it a slippery slope? Are we gonna see Prime games release on Prime first? And then how exclusive?

Right now it's a six-hour exclusive. Is it a six-day exclusive? Is it, is it a six-week exclusive? You know, and then people are gonna be like trying to leak that and it's like a whole me- You know, it... I don't know. They, it's a trailer, it's a marketing material. Wouldn't you want the widest reach? Like it's just a little, I don't know, it's just a little strange.

Mikhail: That's

Matt: But ag-

Mikhail: me. Like,

Matt: what if this is again, like they're, they're trying to get out of the vanilla

Mikhail: Yeah

Matt: thing of like, "Oh, press release." Maybe they want the controversy, like we don't know that, right? In the same reason it's, it's i- in the same general idea of like I'm intentionally leaking this in order to like get the press to talk about it because then it's, you know, it's unique and it's not just a press release.

It's not just a social media post. It's not an official reveal

Mikhail: Yep. Yeah, I don't know.

Matt: But I, I, I, I'd say even then, like, just to, just to make my point clear, like, even if they were like, "Yeah, we're leaking this in [00:24:00] protest of the Netflix thing," I just, like, I just don't care. First of all, I'm gonna forget for those six hours that GTA had a trailer, and the next day I'm gonna be like, "Oh, yeah."

And like, I- it's just gonna completely wash over me. But like, I'm just aga- I'm just, I, I'm not a fan of leaks. Just not my, not my bag

Mikhail: Yep. That's fair. I think I'm in the same bag as you. Um, but yeah, that's it. That's the web news. Hope everyone has a great, uh, rest of your day today, and

Matt: Well, let us know. Let us know what you think about leaks.

Mikhail: right

Matt: Let us know what you think about leaks. Uh, if you, if you're for, against, if this is a good protest, this... Yeah. If this is a good protest, a bad protest. It's just, yeah, I don't know. I, yeah

Mikhail: the podcast? I don't know

Matt: I mean, I've absolutely accidentally pressed publish

Mikhail: Yeah.

Matt: It's

Mikhail: All right. Goodbye

Matt: Goodbye