The 2020 "Leaks" (probably) never happened

[Fox]

The official story by sony is that the 2020 Last Of Us 2 leaks came from a 20-something-year-old fan in the Netherlands who found a way into Naughty Dog’s internal servers and downloaded several terabytes’ worth of data via a patch in an older Naughty Dog game that inadvertently allowed access to the developer's servers, allowing him to access footage of devs playing a non-final build.

This explanation is completely plausible but lacks any kind of proof whatsoever outside the word of Sony themselves. So if you feel that Sony can be trusted and that they would never lie then you need not read further. But I wish to tell you a different (and better written) story about The Last of Us part 2 and I hope you will grant me your attention for the next few minutes to give you just that.

You see the thing about the supposed “leak” is that. The official story is completely unverifiable to anyone outside of Sony or Naughty Dog, and an even more curious detail is that they never filed any charges against the person that leaked their own info. No person has ever officially been arrested or prosecuted for the supposed leak.

Now a long and drawn out answer that I will make very short for you for the sake of time is that the Netherlands is keeping the details about the trial and the individual secret for their own safety, and while that is certainly plausible I propose a far easier and sensible answer. There is no leaker, there was no “hack,” and these are mere fabrications of a company that does not want you to know how badly they treat their employees.

You see the crunch up to the release of Last of Us 2 was brutal, following the release of their previous game Uncharted 4 roughly 70% of Naughty Dog quit after the game shipped. Meaning most of the devs working on Last of Us 2 were new hires, these new hires were crunched to the point of multiple members needing to be hospitalized. Their final paychecks were withheld until they signed an NDA so that they would not tell the story of how mistreated they were. (This is highly illegal btw) Then kicked to the curb when they are no longer useful.

This is where the “leaks” come in, I yet again propose a far more sensible answer. That the identity of the leaker is not some still unknown person on the other side of the world but someone from inside Naughty Dog’s own studio, one of the many disgruntled employees threatened with lack of severance and crunched till they were suffering from exhaustion. Decides to leak the game to the public as an act of retribution. These leaks hit the web and spread like wildfire, creating many memes and spoilers at every corner of the internet causing Sony to react the only way they know how, throwing DMCA’s out and clamping down the iron fist to try and put what is now a raging inferno with the equivalent of an eye dropper.
This, understandably, doesn’t work. But not long after the leaker is identified, and threatens to go public with how mistreated they were at the hands of this corporation if they are ever prosecuted. The corporation, seeking the path of least resistance, agrees. Seeing that news outlets already suspected an employee was the leaker, and if it was revealed that they treated their own employees so badly they leaked their products to the public, their public image would be irreparably damaged. While corporations are not beholden to the laws that bind us regular people they are forever subservient to a higher court: The Court of Public Opinion.

So another story is created, a believable yet unverifiable tale of how a “hacker” breached Naughty Dogs servers is released to the press, and the rest is history.

But unlike Naughty Dog and Sony I don’t expect you to take my word for it, I simply stated my interpretation of the facts at hand and gave you my conclusion. Facts that I will now make available to you. I want you to decide what you believe.

The links are as follows:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/fhn5g0/jonathan_cooper_former_animator_at_naughty_dog/

https://kotaku.com/as-naughty-dog-crunches-on-the-last-of-us-ii-developer-1842289962

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJdwQmpGs2E&ab_channel=BellularNews

https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Naughty-Dog-Reviews-E134488.htm

[Swaggaccino]

So you're saying it was self sabotage? To avoid some PR damage, Naughty Dog decided to sabotage their sales and suffer even greater PR damage? We all know about crunch - it's horrible especially coming from me who had to work long hours 6 days a week before in the hospital, trust me I know - most gamers don't care as long as the game is great.

Yeah I don't believe it. Bullcrap. It's Naughty Dog trying to save face. They went political and gamers decided they didn't want it. Now the company is struggling to stay afloat. Let this be a lesson - don't make your games political.

[Hobx]

Man people really will make up conspiracies about anything won't they.

[Kables]

You really think they would fake the leaks when in the leaks there was a huge spoiler.

[Fox]

Originally posted by Kables:

You really think they would fake the leaks when in the leaks there was a huge spoiler.

Please for the love of god actually read something before you reply.

[B3NR0]

My guy, why the hell would ND leak basically Joel's death themselves? It's stupid to think that. It's like making a movie and telling everyone who dies at the end, and still hoping that everyone goes to the theater lol. Neil even said he was depressed when they told him Joel's death was posted online.

[Fox]

Originally posted by B3NR0:

My guy, why the hell would ND leak basically Joel's death themselves? It's stupid to think that. It's like making a movie and telling everyone who dies at the end, and still hoping that everyone goes to the theater lol. Neil even said he was depressed when they told him Joel's death was posted online.

>Last of us pfp