I wanted to talk about the latest "huge" Mass Effect 3 leak for a moment (it's something that was allegedly leaked by a disgruntled ex-employee on 4chan.) :)

The overwhelming consensus is that it's a fake. But, I don't want to discuss the legitimacy of the leak, or the holes in the post, but rather the individual who posted it and potential intent that can come with these kinds of leaks.

So, imagine for a moment that this was real information and it truly was an internal leak.

This is a person who wants to be anonymous, but they revealed all of these details about themselves:

"After speaking with a close friend who is an attorney"
"virtual lightning [sic] technician"
"has been working for BioWare for over 8 years now"
"sole creator of the lighting partitions of all of BioWare's engines and engine plugins"
"I am no longer a part of the companies in question"
"in my career, which spans 19 years"

If this information was real, they practically screamed at their former employer exactly who they were. An individual trying to be anonymous would never post any details like this about themselves so publicly along with a legitimate leak.

However, this demonstrates a perfect example of detecting whether someone is trying to frame a current or past employee.

A current/ex-employee, who doesn't like another current/ex-employee, could easily post a completely legitimate internal leak, but then sprinkle in minor indications of their target's "true" identity. These are almost always personal attacks.. some are made in haste thinking that it might just cause trouble for them, or others do it in an attempt to disgrace or hurt them (e.g. ability to get a new job.)

It's one thing to keep in mind with all of these anonymous leaks. Even if it's real, it's very difficult to guess the identity of the poster. And from the employer's perspective, it doesn't matter what evidence they see on the surface since it doesn't tell them anything at all. Even if all of the clues in the written leak identify a single person ("Oh, that's Bob.. he was our only lighting technician"), it's completely useless to them and cannot be used to determine their identity. It could be a current employee for all they know.

No matter what a person might say, it's something that the employer would still need to fully investigate themselves, with undeniable proof of the leak's origin, and the true identity of the culprit. If they don't have access to any evidence (say that they don't want to waste the time/money to subpoena 4chan for their records), they can't jump to any conclusions about the poster's identity no matter what the leak says or hints at. If, however, the post was (foolishly) made from within their own network, then the evidence identifying the culprit would be quite accurate and staggering.

Anyways, I just thought that it was interesting because as humans tend to jump the gun and we sometimes make false assumptions on different matters (without knowing the full truth). If this was a real leak, I wouldn't be surprised rumors would be circulating around the BioWare offices about "how the leak came from Bob", even if it didn't.

I'll have that other Mass Effect post up as soon as I can (it will be a short one too). I tend to get sidetracked by these interesting things. :)

* UPDATE: Leaked photos here too. There are 22 total images, including the reveal of that teased female Pandaren silouette.

Apparently, while Gamesradar was preparing their new Mists of Pandaria Press Event videos for release this coming Monday, they inadvertently posted them online (either that or they thought no one would notice.)

These videos don't contain a ton of new information, but they do reveal the new dungeons as well as many of the races, and previously unseen areas. This is just some the footage that every fansite out there will all be showing off (identically along with the same zone/dungeon details). More to read, less to watch come March 19. :)

According to "MMORPG Italy", the Italian branch of Blizzard Entertainment have just revealed the Release Date and Price of the game. (Thanks for the heads up Anonymous.)

The game will be releasing on Tuesday, April 17 and the prices are €54.90 for the Standard Edition and €89.90 for the CE.

Interestingly, this wasn't the usual retailer estimation, but rather it allegedly came from Blizzard directly and it was sent to several large retailers prematurely. It also came along with their price structure which was something that never accompanied any of the other retailer Release Date "leaks", but it's something that has always accompanied a game's Release Date announcement. (That's the part I found most interesting.)

The release of this new information seems awfully close to the predicted (by Incgamers and some other whispers) March 5th release date announcement, but the release would be only 1 month away which would be quite unusual for Blizzard given their past minimum 2 months. It's something I've discussed in the past (a compressed timeline), so I'll have more to say on the subject if this Release Date ends up being true.

* UPDATE: If nothing is announced by March 12th, I don't think MMORPG Italia's "inside source" on this release date is correct.

So you all know the story: Joystiq received a rumor last week that John Staats was terminated, but they never released any source details so I followed up to find out how they could have possibly known this. One explanation was that their recently updated FB statuses showed past employment with Blizzard. A couple of them have corrected their mistakes, but others have still left their FB profiles as ex-Blizzard employees.

Blizzard denied multiple layoffs, and most news media blogs/sites re-posted it as "NO LAYOFFS CONFIRMED". Joystiq denied any layoffs, and started throwing people under the bus.

Very well-known and public Blizzard employees and "professional journalists" found it hilarious that a profile site could ever be used for reliable information. You know, even though John Staat's recent unemployment was confirmed through Facebook.

I also discovered, much to my disappointment, that many blogs and "professional journalists" never actually read the blog entry and they misreported it on purpose to try drive up visitors I assume. There's a metric ton of misinformation out there.. if you want to know the truth, just read it from the source.

So, my last comment was:

So, this brings us all back to the original speculation. We may learn more in the coming weeks or months.

Well, it just happened. Paul Richards (who was on the Titan team for about 1 year) has just confirmed a recent termination as well.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2011

LOOKING FOR WORK

The short story : A month ago I quit Blizzard after one year of service. This wasn't exactly my plan, but my hand was more or less forced. That's as far as I can discuss it publicly. I've a few promising leads -- have been interviewing here and there -- but want to see what posting this does. Call it an experiment.

If anyone's got a suggestion/contact, I'm currently seeking a full-time position doing concept art*, and would love to hear from you personally at the following address :

djunderfoot(AT)gmail(DOT)com

*portfolio
http://www.autodestruct.com/

Paul Richards (Titan Concept Artist) as you know was one of the speculated terminations in my earlier post. He had also updated his FB status entry showing past employment with Blizzard.

There are still many more to go.. and I'll update if I receive any other confirmations.

So basically, it appears that the initial reports of "NO MASS LAYOFFS" or "NO MASSIVE LAYOFFS" were defined as Blizzard as more than 1000 people. Which is incorrect and THAT rumor is false. However, when I defined "MASS LAYOFFS" meaning multiple, then YES that rumor appears to be true. Apparently, there are a lot of people who owe me an apology. :)

(Like everything on the internet though, this source might not be accurate or correct. But, like I said earlier, I'm reporting on something with real sources, a real person making the claim, and reasons to support the information. If it turns out to be one giant troll, which is unlikely since Blizzard would be purposefully deceiving the public, I'll update with new information. Simple as that.)

* UPDATE:

More confirmed names that can be added to the list of recent terminations:

(John Staats)
(Paul Richards)
Trent Kaniuga (Feb 2012 - Sr. Concept Artist, left his status as still "Working At Blizzard" too)
David Lesperance (Nov 2011 - Sr. Environment Artist Titan)
Stephen Lim (Aug 2011 - Sr. Producer Titan)
Constance Wang (Aug 2011 - PA on Titan)
Morgan Fainberg (Oct 2011 - Systems Engineer)
David Pacanowsky (Aug 2011 - QA Game Tester D3)
Jodi Armstrong (Aug 2011 - HR)
Annika LaVallee (Sep 2011 - QA Analyst)
Daniel Favela (Sep 2011 - Software)
Nick Downs (Sep 2011 - IT Admin)
Jordan Schwob (Oct 2011 - Accounts/CS)
Colt McAnlis (Jul 2011 - Titan)

There's also atleast 20 CSRs, but they worked out of call centers outside of the US so I didn't include them. These are just the ones that happened to have LinkedIn accounts with confirmed terminations, which is a very small percentage of Blizzard employees. I haven't even looked at potential layoffs with Activision either.

* UPDATE (01/18/12):

Another name confirmed! And this was one from original suspicion list.

Matt Milizia has finally made a comment on his Facebook account confirming his last day with Blizzard. This was one of the names I suspected along with Paul Richards (who was also later confirmed.)

Today was my last day at Blizzard Entertainment. It was very much time for me to move on. It was a pleasure working with such a talented team, but just wasn't a work cultural fit. I wish you guys the best.
January 13 at 3:15pm

* UPDATE (01/20/12):

Senior Game Producer Steven Parker just announced that he has left Blizzard Entertainment as well (December 2006 – January 2012).

3 days before his announcement, a couple coworkers left him some new recommendations on his LinkedIn page too.

What a coincidence. More than one termination right before their next Quarterly Shareholders meeting (February 9, 2012). :)

Resumes, blogs, Twitter, and LinkedIn have been proven to be a great source of information on (confirmed) leaks.. but apparently Facebook is not a reliable source of information.

I've never used Facebook before for sleuthing, but apparently that's the opinion of many. Blizzard employees (Zarhym, Bashiok, and Rob Pardo) and many many others found it laughable and ridiculous that Facebook could ever be used as a reliable source of information.

"pretty sad how if someone makes a facebook post to their friends how it can turn into rampant internet rumors about mass lay-offs lol"

Is it really that far fetched though?

I would assume that Facebook would be just as reliable as any resume, profile site, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Wikipedia entry. What's different about Facebook though, is that it's an open forum with your friends and family, you feel more comfortable, and you're more likely to be honest with your feelings and thoughts. After all, how many people have been fired for saying something on their FB profile that they shouldn't have? How many people, upon being fired or breaking up with their S.O., login immediately to their Facebook profile to update their status?

Look at Cameron Dayton's Twitter and LinkedIn slips about Titan for example. Two mistakes on two separate profile sites. TOD even warned Blizzard and other developers about FB profiles specifically. Where do you think many of his (fully confirmed, mind you) leaks and discoveries came from over the past year? :)

"On a related note, if you're in the game development field: get rid of your entire global internet footprint. You shouldn't have a Twitter account, a blog, a YouTube account, participate in any forums, play online games with people you don't know, share art or pictures, take pictures within your workplace and post them online, have a Facebook account, share details with OPEN Facebook accounts, or even have a Google account w/out making sure your Docs and Buzz are completely disabled. I don't even know where to get started.. I know way too much now."

Facebook profiles with high resolution pictures taken at work.. showing LCD monitors and whiteboards in the background.. with concept art, gaming design flow charts, and in-game images. Yeah.. Facebook photos alone can't be used as a reliable source of intel.

I don't know if any lay offs have happened, or how many, all I know is that Blizzard said that the "majority" of names listed on the blog entry were still employed with Blizzard. (Tweeted when about half the names were listed by the way.)

Zarhym: The vast majority named in that article are at work today. FB profiles can't be used to confirm anything, especially a mass trend

There are 3 ways an organization can respond to questions: Confirm, deny, or no comment. Blizzard's official policy is "no comment", but they didn't in this case which is highly unusual. And, there was no denial of multiple lay offs at Blizzard. They only said that the wild speculation and rumors were untrue (e.g. rumors of 1000 people being laid off are untrue). Tom Chilton recently did the same.. the wild speculation and rumors about Mists of Pandaria were also untrue. :) And, has anyone forgotten that Blizzard lost 10% of their subscribers.. but yet are still employing the same quantity of support staff?

So how about Facebook though.. is it a good place for leaks or reliable information?

Well, let's check. Hmm.. Assassin's Creed Revelations was recently leaked on Facebook. Dishonored gaming details were leaked on FB (Magazine cover scan) too. Killzone 3 gaming videos.. MW3 gaming details.. DNF concept art and screenshots.. hundreds of car concepts leaked, new technology or gadget concept art and hardware specs, iPad apps, concept drawings on new gaming systems, studio clips of songs and upcoming albums leaked, Facebook leaking its own code, leaked names of violent offenders, accused underage murderers, pictures of murder scenes, murder investigations, communications between violent groups or individuals, celebrity personal details leaked.. holy crap, there are a lot of legitimate leaks and investigations into Facebook.

Even the Israeli military called off a raid in Palestinian territory after a soldier posted details on Facebook about the time and place of their raid.

Al Jazeera reporters use it, investigations by CNN, Reuters, Washington Post, etc. Even NPR finds it an "invaluable" source of information.

“There hasn’t been any query that we haven’t gotten good sources for,” Peralta said. From finding high school dropouts to people who have recently been laid off from their jobs, Peralta said the organization regularly posts inquiries for sources as status updates on its page and receives hundreds of valuable responses.

It doesn't end there. Even Governments and authorities use it as a reliable source of information.

"Government authorities rely on Facebook to investigate crimes and obtain evidence to help establish a crime, provide location information, establish motives, prove and disprove alibis, and reveal communications."

It all depends on the data, who wrote the data, and what they wrote or did.

I think Facebook it's about as reliable as any other site out there. Some is real, some is exaggerated, and some is fake. And there are also accidents:

* Gino Whitehall has now updated his Facebook profile to show "Concept Artist at Blizzard Entertainment" now instead of the "previously worked at" status.
* Trent Kaniuga has also completely updated his FB profile to make it more accurate. It now shows the correct "Sr. Concept Artist at Blizzard Entertainment" as well as other updates.
* Jay Wilson left a comment on Trent's page: "I actually got asked if you were still working at Blizzard by PR at dinner last night, Trent. I reassured them you were, of course. Just remember, no such thing as bad press. :)"
* Paul Richards is involved in the conversations, and very well aware of the rumors. But, he has left his employment as the previously "Worked At" Blizzard. :)
* John Staats hasn't changed his status either.

But, wait one second. If they're updating their FB profile to be accurate, doesn't that mean they're serious about having correct FB information in the first place? I thought FB wasn't supposed to be reliable and it's all incorrect information? Perhaps this means that FB profiles are indeed reliable sources of information for certain Blizzard employees after all? Jay Wilson said he was talking to PR at dinner last night.. was he lying, or did Facebook just become a reliable source of information? :)

Also, look at the flip side of the coin. Consider what information was picked apart and shown, versus what was left out. I only talked about 8 potential names, for example, and mentioned a dozen others that I couldn't get any confirmation on their last working date (some were confirmed to be unemployed, but I couldn't confirm when their last day was.) What I didn't write about, though, were the hundreds of other names that were still showing employed and yet still accurate. If you have a report with 1000 names on it, but 2% of the information is incorrect, could that report still be considered as a reliable source (with a caveat)?

tl;dr; If Blizzard is saying FB profiles are inaccurate, then the opposite must also be true. The thousands of FB profiles showing "still employed" must not be correct or reliable. :)

I think I'll use Facebook again for certain investigations though. I realized some interesting stuff about it, discovered some new things, and it's an untapped resource for me. I've mostly focused on other sources of information.

* UPDATE:

Just an interesting update here.

Trent Kaniuga was indeed laid off and part of the same group as other layoffs. His last day at work was in February. However, he changed his status to "Working At Blizzard Entertainment" and left it that way even when he was no longer actually employed by Blizzard.

4. http://www.changedetection.com/ (Many alternatives available.)

Another great site for monitoring website updates. It highlights what specific entries have been added or removed, and it's great for monitoring small website adjustments or and seeing what text specifically changed. Unfortunately, it only monitors the site once per day and at a certain time, so you won't know about the many other possible changes have happen throughout the day (like if the website is undergoing maintenance or text corrections so you may miss some important tidbits.)

It is very useful though for getting advanced Press Releases before they are automatically emailed out, finding out recruiting changes (if positions are filled) or new recruiting jobs available, website changes like when Rockstar redirected all of their domains (which in turn indicated a major shakeup within the company), monitoring old comments or forum posts for changes, monitoring specific accounts (old forum accounts) for changes, watching Gaming Publisher sites for new changes (or "hidden upgrades"), etc.

5. Special Announcements

Speaking of monitoring Press Releases, you should also sign up on publisher websites to automatically receive new Press Releases or Special Announcements. This guarantees that you'll be aware of new information before anyone else (most gaming news sites and blogs already do this, but it takes them longer to get the information out). You should also sign up for news & events on the Investor Relations sites.

The Press Release pages should also be monitored, because occasionally there will be new updates, but automated emails are not sent out. :)

6. Trademarks - USPTO.GOV

Great for finding out game titles months in advance of release or announcement.

Unfortunately, this can't be automated (unless through scripting) so you have to manually search the database for new information.

Outside of Google Alerts, this would be your other bread and butter. Typically, most video game registrations are made in the US first (where the publisher is based.) The Mexican, Australian, Canadian, and European Trademark Search Databases are useless, they lag behind the American based system by weeks or months (and they're missing many US trademarks) so there's no point in using those as a source of information. And, the UK one is just terrible.

The Korean TM Database is a pretty good one, though.

When using USPTO.GOV, if you don't want to specifically search for an Owner (e.g. "Blizzard Entertainment") you could do an "ALL" Search for the keywords "Computer game" or "Computer Software" to see all new Trademark registrations.

This is actually a very fun way of finding out new game titles. You'll have to comb through all of the titles, or look for specific wording like a new Pokemon reference for example. (Make sure you confirm on Google, though, to ensure that no one else has already reported on it though. It might be old information.)

Trademark owners may also have patterns to their registrations. For example, I've found that a lot of trademark registrations happen between May and September. And then things are quiet between mid October and February of the following year. It depends on the TM owner though, and it's something you have to monitor.

If you were a blogger back in 2005-2008 and knew about trademark database searches, you would have been viewed as a GOD knowing all of the new and upcoming game titles months in advance. It wasn't actually until late 2008 and 2009 that people started cluing into TM and Patent offices being a great source of this useful information.

* UPDATE:

Here are some Keyword Searches that you can do yourself under Search Marks > Basic Word > Field: Owner Name and Address

blizzard entertainment
electronic arts
activision
take two
ubisoft
zenimax
bethesda softworks
nintendo
sony
sega
thq
microsoft
square enix
valve corporation (careful with this one, you'll get other companies)
konami
capcom
namco
atlus

When searching for new updates, just keep a mental record of the total Record counts. For example, "Blizzard Entertainment" has 83 records. Whenever that number changes, that's when I scan manually for any new changes. This way, you can go through as many companies as possible. (Keep using the back button to return to the search box.)

7. Copyright Searches & Ratings Approval Boards

This information is farther behind trademark registrations, but it can give you more information about what's in the game.

British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)

Search specifically: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/search/?searchwhere=db&q=blizzard+entertainment
Search all video games: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/search/?searchwhere=db&q=digitalmedia

And here are some others to help you out:

Australian Classification Board
All of the most recent Australian entries (very useful)
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
US Classification and Rating Administration
US Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB)
Pan-European Games Information
Singapore's Media Development Authority

8. Recruiting Practices

You can sometimes get a good sense of a game by the types of art a recruiter is interested in. For example; Kenny Carvalho, the Blizzard Titan recruiter, stated that:

At least for me (Blizzard), I look at portfolios before I ever open a Resume. If I see something that looks impressive or shows potential, I will then look at the Resume to see if my analysis of the portfolio makes sense. I wouldn't worry about what game(s) or companies you are or have worked at. Keep your personal portfolio moving forward and you will be fine.

So the first thing he looked at was their portfolio, before even reading the resume. And who specifically did he apply this method to? The following artists who were hired to work on Titan.

Matt "Empty" Taylor
Michael "Orb" Vicente
Laurel "Tully" Austin
Rory "Rory_M" McMahon
Travis "Darkrusader" Castillo
Joshua "Moof" Anderson
Matthew "mheyman" Heyman
Philip "PhilipK" Klevestav
Joshua "Moof" Anderson
Artem "X-Convict" Volchik
Paul "Autodestruct" Richards
Vadim "Slipgate" Bakhlychev
Martin Holmberg
Bram "Peris" Eulaers
Nick Carver
Vitaliy Naymushin aka Rawkstar
Renaud “Guntharf” Galand

If you search their art and portfolios, you may notice a recurring trend from all of the artists. Of all potential artists out there who applied for a job with Blizzard and with all of the different styles, he selected the portfolios that had scifi, armor, robots, ancient cities, and dinosaurs. They must have seemed like a good fit for the Titan project?

It's sort of like information research. If you start working on a new game, and then suddenly the company is researching World War 2 era information or hiring historical experts on related subject matter, chances are that it's a WW2 style game.

9. Other Sources of Information

When searching through resumes, keep in mind that most employees are well aware of keeping confidential information off their public profiles. However, contractors aren't so careful. Search for resumes belonging to Voice and Body actors and for smaller developers they often outsource graphics and audio work to outside contractors as well.

Many resume searches can't be found through Google, so you need to find professional Job Search Databases where you can search through resumes as a potential employer. Target the Actors Jobs databases in particular.

Look for voice actors in other countries, the ones who provide language translations. This is a highly untapped market, and if there is voice acting in Titan for example, you should see multiple voice acting jobs in other countries (China specifically) appear as the game gets closer to the heavy content/lore build out stage. (Unfortunately, by posting this tip Blizzard might be better prepared now.)

Listen to Shareholders calls very carefully, get a recording, and try to obtain the transcript. They often contain a lot of information that are missed by gaming news sites. I've seen it happen MANY times: they only report on official News Releases, but they don't pay attention to little bits of information stated during financial calls. They rely on you and smaller blogs for that type of information. You need to know your subject matter first to know what to listen for.. so try not to look for leaks on too many games, only do it for the developers or games that you love to play.

Will continue to add on to this, there are some other approaches but I just need to decide which to share or not. :)

Apparently, several Blizzcon live stream listeners overhead a private conversation between Kat Hunter and Geoff Keighley. They weren't aware that their mics were still on, and they were discussing what now is considered a Warcraft IV leak.

This just comes one day after they were talking about how they were surprised there were no leaks. :) It looks like the audio has been cut out (so it wasn't just a rehearsal of something they were going to say) from the stream if you try to rewind now, but I'm hunting around to see if anyone had recorded it.

Here are some pieces of what was discussed:

* Kat Hunter was singing and cursing about her ear piece.
* Kat complaining about Metzen, he was pissed at her for leaking Warcraft 4.

Geoff: "I can't believe you leaked Warcraft 4."
Geoff: "Chris Metzen is pissed about you breaking the news."
Kat?: "Yeah, there was no leaks until Kat Hunter was here"

Sources: 1 2

There a lot of talk on twitter about it too.

Here's a transcript of the conversation, care of Mascotte who still had the conversation cached:

K: Look at those great razer headsets
G: I know
G: Fansy
G: Hello everybody, welcome to our live set
G: (Responding to an unheard question): Yeah
G: (Responding to an unheard question): Right..
(Music playing now, hard to hear anything besides it)
K: Yes thank you
(Someone eating an apple or something)
K: *Coughing*
K: *eating microphone it sounds*
K, now on phone: I need you to do me a favor, you dont have to do it but i need someone to do it this morning, i need you to take the camera in the office, its in the red box by the desk to the left, i need to document every shelf on the store on the backside
(This really isnt interesting at all, just typing this for completion sake)
K: And if someone can take pictures of the front of hall and display cases which is estimated at 4:30
K: And if security stops you say that you have authorization from (full name of someone, not posting since it doesn't add anything) to photograph the art store ony.
K: Thank you, bye.
(couple of seconds of nothing ness)
G(Talking to unknown third person): So am i sure you understand this euh.. Cool.
G: Is there sounds up here or we dont know?
G: OMG they are here! (Reacting to people walking in it seems)
G: For the hordee.., For the hordee
K: Why are they running?
G: For the hordee.., For the hordee
K: Yeah they are coming in.
G: Go go gooo
K: (Awkward laugh)
G: Omg they got warcraft 4 overhere (directed towards the people entering)
K: *Laughing* Yeah..
G: Yes Kat, Kat broke the news yesterday of warcraft 4 (This are his exact words, not MoP, not WoW, Warcraft 4)
K: There are no *Interrupted by G*
G: Metzen was pissed about that.
K: There are no leaks untill Kat Hunter got on stage.
G: I know!
G: Metzen was like how fucking will you..
K: Yeah couldn't believe she (talking in third person now) leaked warcraft 4.
G: Couldn't believe it either!
G: Sow how late was it last night?
K: Didnt get done until 11:30 (This is where the conversation shifts towards what time she ended up going to bed etc so im stopping right here).

Sounds like Kat was imitating Chris Metzen, "I can't believe she leaked Warcraft 4." It was related to a conversation from the previous day with Michael Morhaime where she accidentally asked about WC4 but received no denial (i.e, "All RTS resources currently focused on SC2"). This added conversation, however, does confirm that they know it was an accidental leak.

(I'm still digging up more information, will update as this progresses. But it looks like folks can still record the conversation if it was precached.)

Here we go, this is an audio recording of the WC4 specific conversation towards the end. Even if it was an accident, it shouldn't have been that big of a deal. But Kat sounds very upset about the whole ordeal, Geoff is making fun of her, Metzen is pissed with her, and Blizzard edited the audio stream to remove the conversation. Normally I would just ignore it (ie, the accident from yesterday), but the serious response to the "leak" tells me it was, in fact, a leak. :)

And, here's the full recording, thanks to Mascotte.

Kat made a Twitter response regarding Warcraft 4. It looks like it was posted about 1 hour before her new leak. Poor Kat. Geoff was being a pain in the ass, and she sounded very uncomfortable and maybe a little scared about the whole thing.. but it definitely didn't sound like sarcasm to me.

22 Oct
@kathunter haha, that was icky! we also heard you talk about warcraft 4...oops? ;P
@AmehSweet seriously there is no Warcraft 4. It is a joke from yesterday :)

22 Oct
@kathunter why did you talk about warcraft4 before preshow today but we never heard of it again
@Linkie1987 because Geoff and I were making fun of the misunderstanding the day before. We thought it was funny.

Nice cover. So, Kat Hunter, Licensing Project Manager at Blizzard for almost 3 years, prior Frag Doll, professional gamer, and avid World of Warcraft player was confused about the difference between WoW Mists of Pandaria and Warcraft IV. Uh huh.. sure. :)

Kat Hunter would never.. EVER.. confuse World of Warcraft's "4th Expansion Pack" with "Warcraft 4". A lot of users are attributing her mistake to not understanding the difference, which isn't true.

I wonder if she's talking about the "first mistake" or "second mistake" though, before the confidential conversation with Geoff?

* UPDATE:

If anyone has a virtual pass, would you mind recording the other Kat mention of Warcraft 4? Virtual ticket holders need to goto the WoW Class Talent System panel from day 1, and jump to the end. Then keep jumping forwards until you reach the in-between panel with Geoff and Kat. A YouTube link would be greatly appreciated. :) Apparently, she wasn't joking when she said she spoke to Metzen and other Blizzard developers and they said "Warcraft 4 is coming down the line". It was made distinct from the X4 expansion pack too (she said it was in addition to X4/MoP coming out, so it appears there's a lore integration being made).

There were a total of 3 conversations held regarding Warcraft 4. Only 2 of them were captured and posted publicly unfortunately. The first was with Kat and Metzen (which Blizzard deleted immediately from the stream) where she asked Metzen about WC4 and how she was talking to developers who were working on it, and he became visibily upset (she was definitely not talking to the dev team about MOP though). The second video, which is on YouTube, has Kat trying to cover it. And the third video is when Geoff is making fun of her, while both are trying to play it off as an accident.

During that Pre-Show coverage, Geoff Keighley & Kat Hunter were saying that there "Haven't been a lot of leaks" and the first time they haven't had any major leaks. :)

Yeah, right. Guess that's the benefit of having a smaller blog.. a lot of things go unnoticed.

I'll have some thoughts put up later on those other new developments that were announced. The "WOW Annual Pass" thing seemed kind of new and rushed, maybe it was to make up for the missing Diablo 3 release announcement. Things are just way too busy right now, and I've barely had a chance to use the PC. Sunday should be better.

* UPDATE (10/22/11 5:21 AM):

Okay, something SERIOUSLY WTF just happened. I was looking at the imgur link again and the "Posting Date" suddenly changed to "Saturday, October 22 at 10:53 GMT". As of right now it's saying it was uploaded "1 HOUR AGO" which is incorrect. I used IMGUR for this exact reason, so that it could be timestamped. I'll investigate to figure out what happened.

* UPDATE (10/22/11 5:57 AM):

Here's a comparison page you can use. This was posted around the same time as the original (so no weird /r/Diablo restructuring.)

Direct Link: http://i.imgur.com/FAp8v.png
Info Page: http://imgur.com/FAp8v

The reason those pages exist were because they were part of a puzzle on the "Important Notices" page.

Here's the specific entry:

* Research research research! If you find new information, share it. It's very important to read everything on the site from beginning to end. It helps many future blogposts make more sense. This blog covers many different topics, and important secrets or hidden gems and puzzles can be found anywhere. Keep your eyes open, investigate, and read..

If you noticed, there was discoloration of certain characters, and if you did a mouse-over you would have discovered "hidden" hyperlinks on the characters.

Each of the hyperlinks went here:

http://i.imgur.com/FAp8v.png - How to piece together the puzzle together
http://pastebin.com/RFUi5Mzz -> The letters "TM" and "Case Sensitive"
http://pastehtml.com/view/b47z32u7o.txt -> a link to Youtube where the letters were "r."
http://tinypaste.com/865cd -> The letters "5Q"

(There are info pages on each of those too showing when they were first uploaded, or when the Youtube comment was first made. I wanted to make sure everything had undeniable evidence, but I didn't anticipate this imgur.com quirk.)

They all combined to make: http://i.imgur.com/ TM 5Q r. png

And I found comments about the puzzle (and specific Blizzcon reveals) here, here, here, and here (this is a page with that Blogspot missing comments problem, but hopefully should be fixed soon.)

I can't believe I have to go through this nonsense. It was just supposed to be cut and dry.

* FINAL UPDATE

Ahh here we go! It's a stupid Reddit feature and just temporary. If you view the "embed codes" on the post, you can see the original posting date: http://imgur.com/TM5Qr?tags

The original is still there. Reddit changed info for some reason whenever it gets linked back. So now you can't flame me anymore assholes.

This is much more difficult now than it used be. Corporations are wising up, they know all the tricks, and their employees are much more prepared and careful. A lot of it is just learning by example too.. when someones blog or resume is exposed, everyone else in the industry reads all about it so they try not to make the same mistakes.

Most gaming developer veterans are careful what they write about, but the best information comes from new hires, interns, and egotistical braggarts.

You can call these "leaks" if you want to.. but they're more like discoveries. Leaks would be something that you confirm from an inside source and usually it's very specific information that's supposed to be confidential.

With all of the recent gaming and information leaks, I figured I would share how some kinds of video game related leaks are discovered. The internet sleuthing site "Supererogatory", for example, made EXTENSIVE use of these techniques for pretty much all of his posts.

1. At the top of your arsenal will be Google Alerts.

Starting out, let's say you want to find some older information on Google. You would use very specific searches like the following:

inurl:resume "Blizzard Entertainment" - the URL has the word "resume" in, and Blizzard Entertainment is a keyword on the page.

Useful for finding those unknown www.brandonsmith.com/resume.html specific sites.

site:cghub.com "David Grexton" - for searching specific sites, especially forums, for any posts that contain this users name.

filetype:pdf resume "Bethesda Softworks" 2011 - for finding PDF or DOC files (typically resumes) with specific information for recent dates.

There are also specific keyword searches, like "Blizzard Entertainment" "Unannounced MMO" or "Blizzard Entertainment" "Next Gen MMO" but these can give you a lot of information that are too many to filter.

Now, most of the historical Google information has already been found or discovered by others. But, what's so great about Google Alerts is that it will automatically email you as soon as a NEW Google entry is made. So, if someone adds a new resume with specific keywords, as soon as Google crawlers capture it, you're notified. Google Alerts is an awesome tool for finding new information, especially when you're filtering by document types or specific keywords.

If you have a Google Alert for just "unannounced game" for example, you'll get too many Google Alerts daily.. so you want to make your alerts as specific as possible.

2. Another great tool is www.LinkedIn.com.

If you want to do any useful searches, you need to sign up with an account.

Google used to be a great search engine for LinkedIn, but they've changed their system and have severely restricted Google crawlers now. For example, you could create Google Alerts like site:linkedin.com "Blizzard Entertainment" and you would be notified immediately when a new account was created with Blizzard in their credentials. You can't do that anymore now. :(

Now, you have to manually search LinkedIn and just keep track of employee names yourself. If you search for "unannounced mmo" blizzard or "next gen" for example, you can find all of the Blizzard employees who are working on the game or have worked on previous unannounced titles. You also need to be creative with your keywords: unannounced, untitled, unnamed, *titled, *announced, next gen, nextgen mmo, secret, project, etc.

If you want to get invited to see more information about a user, all you need is a 3rd degree of separation. There are TONS of employees, industry contacts, and especially recruiters who have a "Will Accept All Invites" policy. Create yourself a name and account, and then do a search for recruiters or keywords like "accepts invites", "all invites", etc. In a couple days, you could quickly generate 100 contacts on your LinkedIn account, with 3rd party connections to all major game developers. This gives you open access to their LinkedIn accounts, and you can typically see more information than what would be available in their public profiles.

3. http://whois.domaintools.com

What's great about this site is that it creates an individual Google-searchable page every time a new domain is registered.

If you type, site:whois.domaintools.com blizzard you can see most domain names with Blizzard within it's title or description.

It's not the most reliable website for historical webpages, but it's great when you create a new Google Alert using the site:whois.domaintools.com command. You can be alerted any time a new domain registration is created within whatever parameters you set.

Sometimes you need to get a little creative.. don't use "Blizzard Entertainment" for example, but rather search using their Administrator or Technical Contact names. Or, have active searches for "DomainsByProxy" or other Proxy companies that hold domains for private entities like many of your favorite game publishers.

More to come..

I was thinking about going back and updating this old "Leaks, leaks, and More Leaks" post by the Original Daeity.

With all of the recent game leaks happening, it's too hard to pass up keeping that list going. I'm also writing up a bunch of other information leak posts that you'll find very interesting, and I'm trying to pump out all of my drafts and posts as quickly as possible before this weekend when things get really busy for all of us. :)

Here's what I have so far:

Battlefield 3 PC - Leaked Oct 16, Release Date: Oct 25
Gears of War 3 XBOX360 - Leaked Jul 2, Release Date: Sep 20
Batman: Arkham City XBOX360 - Leaked Oct 13, Release Date: Nov 21
RAGE XBOX360 / PS3 - Leaked Sep 30, Release Date: Oct 4
Deus Ex: Human Revolution X360 / PS3 - Leaked Aug 18, Release Date: Aug 23 (Retailer broke street date.)
Resistance 3 PS3 - Leaked Aug 20, Release Date: Sep 6
The Witcher 2 PC - Leaked May 8, Release Date: May 17

Am I missing any other big game leaks?

A former Blizzard employee (kidr3volver on Reddit) has posted screenshots (and now a video) of the Diablo 3 beta.

Source of the information can be found here.

His IMGUR album is located here. And you can watch the Beta Player Character Screen video here.
ForceStrategy Gaming called it all fake photoshop work, but it looks pretty real to me. :)

According to his IAMA, "the majority of my life in blizzard was under the account and billing/tech department but have some general GM experience as well".

I don't think kidr3volver was too serious about protecting his identity though. According to previous Reddit posts, he publicly revealed his name and date of birth: Joshua Shields, 1986 (jshields1986). According to his public Google+ profile, he worked for Blizzard Entertainment in the Account and Tech Services department from 2010-2011.

Here's his LinkedIn Profile and a screenshot and here's my favorite part:

Learn and review departmental policies and procedures.
Maintain security and confidentiality of Blizzard Entertainment internal information and customer/account.

He probably received an earlier beta invite through the "Friends & Family Members" closed beta invite, considering that he's not currently employed by Blizzard.

His jshields1986 unique alias is all over the internet as well, and there are plenty of pictures of both him and his cat.

http://cheezburger.com/jshields1986/
http://www.quickmeme.com/user/jshields1986/oldest/
http://s634.photobucket.com/albums/uu64/jshields1986/
http://imgur.com/user/jshields1986
http://www.resumebucket.com/jshields
jshields1986@gmail.com, jshields1986@yahoo.com, etc. etc.

This is a really good example (and a warning) of how important it is to protect your identity and "internet footprint". Information about you is all over the web, and it just takes one slip up to link all of your aliases to one identity.

Unless this is all an elaborate conspiracy where someone borrowed this persons alias in an attempt to frame them. For example, he worked with Joshua at Blizzard, didn't like him, and now it's payback time. :)

** Update:

Kidr3volver has been going through and deleting all of his Reddit posts. I wouldn't be surprised if he pulled the images and YouTube video too. (It's already been reposted though.)

And, Blizzard has just deleted one of the Diablo 3 discussions on Battle.net. Never had a chance to read the entire thing and it was up for about 5-6 hours.

Here's the one that was deleted: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3118271920

Interestingly enough, they still kept the original older posting (7 hours old now) that contains all of the personal information about the leaker: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3118161991

I had thought it was against B.Net forum rules to post that sort of stuff there. I wonder why they deleted the newer post, but not the original?

It might have had something to do with the comments made by Sixen on the forum (he's a Community MVP.) They were talking about favoritism (i.e. friends that hooked them up with invites) for Beta selection: [Image 1] [Image 2] [Image 3]

Sixen was also originally telling everyone that there was no Diablo 3 Friends and Family "F&F" Alpha/Beta, then changed his tune when corrected by forum users:

"There will not be a Friends and Family Alpha or Beta. The game is going right from Internal Alpha to Public Beta."
"Nevermind, apparently I'm wrong, there will be an F&F."
"Nope, the info I had changed."

** Update:

Confirmed; he just pulled his YouTube video.

There's another copy here for your viewing pleasure.

Transferred from paxdora.blogspot.com [LINK]
Original Post Date: 7/24/11

You know what? Boubouille has inspired my to create my own fake news leak and allow other people to take initial credit for it.

I'll use just basic or reasonable information to create some kind of leak, something that will fool multiple news sites and blogs.

Although I can't reveal any information here, I might use code or image attachments that way information on the "leak" can't be found using search engines. I'll call it "Project Bubu" henceforth, and maybe start with something small and easy first.

** Update:

Well.. I create a fake leak that looked legitimate, but it sat there for like 3 weeks and no one noticed. I was really disappointed.. apparently, there very few people that search online resumes through Google looking for unannounced games.

So, I ended up creating a puzzle that leaked REAL information. I dropped hints with Siliconera, Kotaku, and Superannutation. I'm amazed that another few weeks have passed and they never even looked into the information. It was fully real, and users would have loved to hear about this information that wouldn't be announced for another month yet. So disappointed.. it's like I need to spell everything out for these guys.

As mentioned, here are all of the wonderfully leaked goodies (ie, the "motherload" I mentioned). Most of this is related to this year's BlizzCon and I'm sure the (wrong) heads are probably going to roll after releasing this information. =]

Keep in mind, that I'm still not done yet.. this is just the tip of the iceberg. I've saved the best for last and I'm typing as quickly as I can.

- So just to recap, I've already covered the D3 release, the (insightful) financials and subscriber figures with a quick analysis.

- DIABLO 3: The "planned" beta release date will be announced at BlizzCon 2011. The D3 beta will actually be taking place this year, but it's in such a stable state, and no problems are expected, that they expect to have it out before Christmas 2011. Sorry for the duplication, I know I already talked about this and the backup 2nd quarter date.

- DIABLO 3: There's going to be a Diablo 3 press conference before the beta begins, so sometime around August. Below are big D3 details of what will either be announced at BlizzCon or during the press conference.

- DIABLO 3: There's going to be a level cap of 60 (future expansion packs will expand the level cap by 10, it's all just like WoW), they're already planning ahead for the next exp. pack and they have in fact cut out zones, art, and skills/abilities out of the main game to be saved up for later.

- DIABLO 3: It's going to require a persistent internet connection through Battle.net. Disappointing, but I'm not surprised.

- DIABLO 3: The big shocker: Blizzard will be allowing players to buy/sell items, players and gold using an in-game system and real world currency! Seriously, I can't make this shit up. Diablo 3 will be using Blizzard's first gold selling service which they've already been building into Battle.net / Blizzard store code. They're working on a new money meter and "banking system" into Battle.net accounts, so it will probably be a storage system like PayPal for real currency that can be used to purchase games and virtual stuff. This is all being used in future games too, and possible older ones. Players will be encouraged to "stay at home, play games, make money". Because of this, they're implementing a no mods/addon policy in D3 as mentioned earlier so that this system can't be exploited (e.g. Auctioneer).

- TITAN: Just wanted to throw this little piece in here because it's related to this new gold selling system. When you see the pictures in the next post, you'll know what I mean. There will be a lot of buying and selling of virtual and real world items in Titan (tied into heavy social interaction) and this new D3 development indicates that Blizzard wants their customers getting used to this new and controversial approach. I don't want to spoil anything else.. you'll see it soon enough. =]

- WOW FIRELANDS: (Note: This is still being updated). The Firelands content patch should be available in the next couple months. A friend of mine is digging through the details right now, but I'll update this section later today. It's a little low priority as you can imagine, but he did say something about a fire-based cat form for Druids and a flaming (Blizzard Store collectible) mount. =]

- WOW EXP PACK: (Another work in progress) A little more details below, but my sources tell me that the next expansion pack will focus on the Island of Pandaria. This is no April Fool's joke, and yes, they're running out of ideas. You can already guess what race will be playable, and there's going to be a new overpowered healing class. I'm still waiting for more details from my sources and I should have some confirmation soon, but they've never steered me wrong before.

- BLIZZCON 2011: They have much more excitement planned for 2011 and there's going to be a TRIFECTA of announcements. First, there's going to be details, a trailer video (and playable demos) of their next SC2 expansion pack (HOTS). Second, they will be announcing their next WoW Expansion Pack (the Pandarens) and there's a video demonstration with details planned (I'm trying to get more details). It sounds like their final expansion pack will be announced at BlizzCon 2013.. Third and finally, there will be the surprise announcement of the "imminent" D3 release. (They're making it the THIRD announcement on purpose.) =]

- TITAN CONT'D: There's not going to be a Titan announcement at BlizzCon 2011. It still needs a lot of work and they're not planning on revealing any details about it just yet. I suppose they could always whip something up to show off, but it can still undergo a lot of changes between now and 2014.

Phew.. deep breaths, deep breaths..

It's not over yet though! Even though this information sounds completely unbelievable and that official documentation was pretty undeniable, I'm positive that many of our more special visitors here will claim that everything is made up. In fact, I'm expecting a TON of skepticism.. that is until these official announcements are made. =]

(For those who haven't been drinking the blue kool-aid, it's going to feel great to be completely vindicated.)

I still have a lot more to write about which I'll do over the next couple days.. I have a LOT to say about that new gold selling system. I'm also expecting a lot of heavy traffic and questions, and I really don't know what's going to happen after revealing all of this information.

Alrighty.. onto the final reveal!

I wonder if there are any websites out there that keep a running total of leaked games? (Well, major game releases anyways.)

Here are the big ones I can remember, including these 2 most recent ones:

Killzone 3 (PS3) - Feb 12, 2011
Crysis 2 (PC) - Feb 11, 2011
COD Black Ops (X360) - Oct 18, 2010
Halo: Reach (X360) - Aug 20, 2010
Halo 3 ODST (X360) - Aug 28, 2009
The Sims 3 (PC) - May 18, 2009
Spore (PC) - Aug 31, 2008
GTA IV (X360) - Apr 23, 2008
Halo 3 (X360) - Sep 21, 2007
GTA San Andreas (PS2) - Oct 20, 2004
Halo 2 (XBOX) - Oct 13, 2004
World of Warcraft (PC) - Jan 4, 2004
Gran Turismo 4 (PS2) - Nov 2, 2003
DOOM 3 (PC) - Nov 3, 2002
Half-Life 2 (PC) - Oct 2, 2003

Crytek is blaming pirates for the leak. Which is weird.. wasn't it leaked by an internal (possibly disgruntled) employee? Pirates can be blamed for spreading the game, but not for leaking it in the first place.

Did Blizzard blame piracy when a member of their senior management team leaked confidential subscriber data, financials, and product release slates? Even Carmack had it right when the DOOM 3 leak happened, he blamed ATI for the leak - not pirates.

Did you noticed something else about these leaked games by the way?

They went on to experience HUGE commercial success and awards. These were top selling games worldwide! Even after the GTA IV console version was leaked, it still went on to sell what.. over 19 million copies by now? Doom 3, GT4, The Sims, Half-life 2, Halo.. these are the best selling games in the world.

The only trend I see here is that leaked games go on to become hugely popular and financially successful games.

If the game is bad, though, you can just blame piracy for the bad sales. Right, Crytek?

Game leaks, and other forms of media, have been pretty common for decades actually. I'm sure some news sites may try to link the current popularity of Wikileaks to leaks like this.. "the reason for these leaks is because we live in a Wikileaks generation." Even though that has nothing to do with it.

Now that I'm thinking back, what other kind of stuff has been leaked? I remember the X-Men/Hulk/Harry Potter films being leaked.. DVD screeners, tons of TV series leaked months in advance. Haha.. ah yes, I remember when the pilot episode of Doctor Who was leaked back in 2005 and BBC spokeswoman Annie Frederick claimed that it wasn't a publicity stunt and that the leaked version was completely different from their final version - apparently, the leaked version was unfinished and an incomplete rough cut. After the "real" version came out, it was discovered that the only real difference between the two was the intro music. Good one Annie. Since viral marketing was all the rage back in '05, her claims led me to believe that it probably WAS a publicity stunt after all.

Anyways.. for other (real) internal leaks, it just goes to show that employers need to improve their hiring standards and screening processes, and once they get good employees, they need to treat them very well. There's nothing worse than a disgruntled employee, they'll end up costing you more than any possible revenue they could have made for you. (Things like weak performance, theft, sabotage, influencing other employees, complaining about your company and changing perceptions, creating hostile work environments, security issues, being a bottleneck, and vandalism tend to cost companies a lot of money.)

* UPDATE:

Here were some other games that leaked. If I find any others, I'll keep updating. (If you know of any, just leave a comment and I'll update/change dates too if I got one wrong.)

Assassin's Creed (PC) - Feb 24, 2008 (Ubisoft blamed the disc-replication firm Optical Experts Manufacturing for the leak.)
Fable 2 (X360) - Oct 16, 2008
Fallout 3 (X360) - Oct 8, 2008 (Bethesda blamed the press for leaking a review copy.)
Far Cry 2 (X360) - Oct 16, 2008
Manhunt 2 - Sep 7, 2007 (Sony Europe employee was blamed and later fired.)
Painkiller (PC) - Dec 31, 2003
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (PC) - Dec 30, 2003
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat (PC) - Sep 28, 2009
World of Warcraft Expansion Packs (Alpha TBC, WOTLK, CATA months before release.)

I think Manhunt 2 is proof alone that controversy and game-leaks can sell even bad games well. Manhunt 2 sold 500,000 more copies than they should have. =]

* UPDATE (02/18/2011):

Bulletstorm (X360) has apparently been "leaked", but in fact the street date was just broken by a retailer. So it's not really considered a leak, but it has been out for 4 days before retail.

* UPDATE (03/06/2011):

Homefront (PC) - Mar 6, 2011 (Kaos Studios indirectly blamed Steam)

* UPDATE (11/07/2011):

Battlefield 3 (PC) - Leaked Oct 16, Release Date: Oct 28
Gears of War 3 (XBOX360) - Leaked Jul 2, Release Date: Sep 20
Batman: Arkham City (XBOX360) - Leaked Oct 13, Release Date: Nov 21
RAGE (XBOX360 / PS3) - Leaked Sep 30, Release Date: Oct 4
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (X360 / PS3) - Leaked Aug 18, Release Date: Aug 23 (Retailer broke street date.)
Resistance 3 (PS3) - Leaked Aug 20, Release Date: Sep 6
The Witcher 2 (PC) - Leaked May 8, Release Date: May 17
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (X360) - Leaked Oct 25, Release Date: Nov 8
Mass Effect 3 (X360) - Leaked Nov 5 2011, Release Date: Mar 6, 2012 (Bioware blames MS XBOX Live "Human Error")

Check out this video interview between Destructoid and Blizzard.

He confirmed that they are indeed calling the game Titan (their internal codename), that people weren't supposed to know about it ("the media's not supposed to know anything about that, it's our Next-Gen MMO"), and that it has been used quietly ("limited") within the organization.

In the beginning of the video, Destructoid was obviously referring to the recent leaked release schedule, and Frank Pearce cracked a big smile. =]



So - I think that's pretty much a confirmation that the release schedule was indeed legitimate. The release dates are all estimates of course (ie, setting a general roadmap for the company) and the actual release dates will fall short of their original goals based on trends, but at least they give us a really good idea of when they want to release the games even though our own estimates were pretty close. Unfortunately, this also means that all of that other critical financial and subscriber information is out there in the wild too!

Blizzard recently stated that they intended to develop smaller expansion packs so that they could release them much sooner - giving that release schedule more legitimacy (ie, one year apart versus every two years.)

This time it's leaked video footage of the work-in-progress Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm ending CGI.

Here's a link to see the video yourself. Keep in mind, it contains big spoilers. =]

(NEW LINK HERE - they're being pulled down all over the place.)

It might have been an alternative ending to Wings of Liberty, but based on Activision Blizzard's flurry of recent take down notices - it probably is indeed the ending to Heart of the Swarm.

(Update: Confirmed to be a legitimate leak.)

What's on the video (SPOILERS):

Kerrigan either turns back into the Zerg hybrid, or she's a clone created by Mengsk so that he could take control of the Zerg armies for himself.

It appears that up until now, the Zerg have always been controlled by some nefarious overmind. In this case, Arcturus Mengsk has been working with Kerrigan (or a clone) for some time and possibly controlling her. So the Zerg's actions (in WoL or HotS) were all the result of Mengsk's decisions. He has a lab full of Kerrigan (human) clones with PSI abilities that can reach out to Zerg/Kerrigan to hurt and possibly control her.

Mengsk calls her his greatest failure, and then she and Raynor kill Mengsk. The Zerg/Kerrigan also appears to be super-PSI powered as well. =]

Basically, the Zerg are finally free from all control and can now decide their own destiny. In the end, Raynor asks "What now?" Kerrigan responds with, "I keep my end of the bargain, and leave humanity to it's fate. The Zerg are free now.. slaves to no one, not even me. So whether they be the bringers of light or destroyers of worlds, I'll help them find the answer out there amongst the stars."

I've been sitting on this story since the end of November, still deciding whether to write about it. I was waiting for another confirmation before posting anything. But, it looks like some new information has hit the news outlets confirming what mmogamesite.com has been writing about.

Here are some links to bring you up to date:

Blizzard Product Slate Leaked
China Management Reshuffle
China GM Fired for Leak
Blizzard Release Schedule Leak?
Blizzard Angry, a Lot of Other Information Leaked
Competitors Trying To Buy Confidential Information

The information was leaked from a 178.com forum user, which mmogamesite.com, a very new website, picked up.

One item that concerned me was that new MMO was called "Project Titan". However, "Project Titan" is the exact same name as Ensemble Studio/Bungie's secret "Halo" MMOFPS project that was cancelled. It would be easy to get that information confused with Blizzard's MMO from all of the random internet sources out there. The "Codename Titan" has been around for a while too (I've even used it too), and there have been obscure forum posts calling Blizzard's new MMO "Titan" as well for several months now. The Portuguese translation ("WOW BRAZIL") has also been known internally for some time for example.

Keep in mind that "Project Titan" is just a code name too and it wouldn't be the actual name of the new MMO (which hasn't been decided yet).

For example,
Diablo 3 was called "Project Hydra".
Starcraft 2 was called "Project Alpha" then changed to "Project Medusa".
Cataclysm was called "Project South Seas" then changed to "Worldbreaker". (Another reason for the name change was because they significantly reduced the scope of the game so that they could reserve parts/zones/content for later expansions.)

(Note: For the past few years, Blizzard has been using names from Greek mythology to label their secret projects. Hydra, Medusa, Titan, and Phoenix are all from Greek mythology so if you wanted to create a new fake roadmap - just pick a name from mythology that can be interpreted a hundred different ways to keep people guessing.)

Here were the more interested tidbits of information I pulled out from these leaks and related news stories:

- It appears that we're getting a Warcraft movie (didn't need a leaked doc to tell us that), there's a Starcraft 2 Phoenix project that looks related to the Map Marketplace (probably map and game designs using the SC2 engine), and there's going to be an online multiplayer Warcraft trading card game. Sounds like a lot of fun! =]

- It also appears that the information might have been given to a Blizzard competitor already (sold?), and that someone there was the one who leaked it that Chinese forum. If this production release schedule is proved true, this is very bad for Blizzard's security.

- Other competitors are showing interest in purchasing this information (due to the sales information, full income/revenue breakdowns, advertising budgets, media plans, and subscriber details.)

- Global subscriber information (yes - you) is all out there in the open market now. It wouldn't contain credit card details though, this was a breach from a different database so to speak.

- Although it was believed that NetEase fully operated WoW in China with impunity (and Blizzard only provided Technical Support), apparently Blizzard has a deep penetration and large say in the complete operation and maintenance of WoW China. This means that Blizzard HQ is "okay" with the massive account selling/gold buying/selling in one country, but not okay with it in others. Talk about double standards. This is very interesting to know.

I've been talking about this for a little while now. For years, Blizzard has been stating that there have never been any breaches, there never will be any breaches, all echoed by Blizzard CS and Forum reps and fanboys. Well, it just happened like what I've been writing about all along.. simply put, it's all about the internal personnel breaches and leaks of information. "External hacking" attempts are much more rare and significantly more difficult by comparison.

But these internal breaches by employees are more frequent, this one just happened to make it public before Blizzard could seal the leak.

This is a pretty massive breach too - all global subscriber database information in fact. Paul Sams (remember him?) in fact had to take a trip to Shanghai to fix things there, and what was interesting is that they had a very quick (external) replacement after the "unexpected resignation" of their GM. Strange how they had someone so readily available..

Meanwhile, Blizzard maintains that this Release Schedule is just rumor and speculation, and that the resignations, management shuffle, and executive management travelling overseas are all just coincidence. =]

Oh! By the way.. here's what Blizzard has officially stated on the matter of security breaches:

There are substantial and multi-layered safeguards in place, after all. An inside job is IMPOSSIBLE!

The list just goes on and on..

Here are some other interesting reads from Forum Reps and Blizzard fanboys on the matter. Many players actually believe (falsely) that Blizzard is required by federal and/or state law to notify of data breaches, so logically there have been no breaches at all.

And finally.. here are some examples of security breaches that did actually occur before said official statements. These are just the ones that made it public too, there are tons of cases and even blogs/websites have received take-down notices from Blizzard.

Blizzard GMS, CS/Forum reps, and Community MVPs are all trained to say "There have been no security breaches." Don't believe everything you read though, that's just what they're trained to say - whether it's fact or not. But that's the beauty of plausible deniability.. plus, they may actually believe what they are conveying is the truth.