Top 9 Biggest Gaming Leaks of 2024 Which Ruined the Whole Fun

In a gaming industry where developers and publishers create elaborate marketing plans and promotional campaigns in order to generate enough interest for upcoing titles and expansions, gaming leaks continue to be a threat to such efforts, with some individuals gaining a reputation for leaking important details that could derail a title’s marketing strategy.

2024 has not been any different and a number of games come to mind as far as gaming leaks are concerned, with their impacts on each respective title proving to be quite the buzzkill considering how highly anticipated they were. Without further ado, here are some of the biggest gaming leaks of 2024.

9. Destiny 2: The Final Shape

The much-awaited expansion to Destiny 2 brought several new additions and mechanics to the original game in an expansion that has proven to be quite a successful outing for developer Bungie. However, a backend leak from Sony’s PS5 cloud streaming service saw many players able to access the expansion well ahead of its release.

As expected, many of these players shared a huge amount of information about its gameplay and story in a leak that many others considered a massive spoiler even as they waited for The Final Shape to release in June 2024. It was a blow to Bungie considering that many of the game’s new weapons, armor, and mission rewards were made known to its players ahead of the expansion’s launch.

8. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

FromSoftware’s explosive expansion for Elden Ring, widely considered to be director Hidetaka Miyazaki’s magnum opus, generated a lot of speculation among fans of the massive open-world RPG for many months prior to its release. However, a few players who managed to gain early access to the expansion shared several details about the Land of Shadow that many players would have wanted to avoid.

With details ranging from minor spoilers to the identity of the game’s final boss – arguably the centerpiece of the expansion’s narrative – this was among 2024’s biggest leaks that even prompted a request from the Japanese studio to its players asking them to avoid ruining the fun for everybody else.

7. Baldur’s Gate 3

It is a testament to Larian Studios’ talent that its 2023 tactical RPG continues to enjoy a robust and active community of players committed to teasing out every possible secret and detail they can find in Baldur’s Gate 3. However, the studio’s latest patch to the game was among their most anticipated ones considering the addition of new content for several characters alongside modding support being added for the game’s console versions.

Leaks about the patch revealed several details about the game’s new endings for some of its characters while also revealing a lot of information about potential new mods making it to the game which many of its players would have loved to experience for themselves. It was a particularly egregious spoiler considering that many of these endings would require an entire playthrough of the game, robbing players of hours of fun and discovery that they have otherwise enjoyed.

6. EA Sports FC 25

While this leak did not reveal any spoilers about EA Sports’ flagship franchise, leaks about a potential release window for FC 25 did the studio no favors as they prompted a lot of speculation about the need for an annual release for the football simulator.

The leak prompted many discussions about the value that yearly installments of FC 25 (formerly known as FIFA) brought to the table, raising several valid arguments about the studio’s value additions to its games along with suggestions that it could take a breather and focus on bringing in features that would make its fans feel like they purchased a brand new title instead of a rehash of what came before it.

5. Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns

The highly anticipated story expansion to Netherrealm Studios’ Mortal Kombat 1 had many players eagerly waiting to learn more about new additions to its expansive cast ahead of the expansion’s release. Considering the potential to bring in obscure characters from several corners of the game’s established universe in the wake of its soft-reboot of the franchise, leaks about who was being added to the game’s roster were massive spoilers and a blow to Netherrealm too.

Furthermore, revelations about characters like Noob Saibot ruined the expansion for many players considering the character’s ties to Sub-Zero, whose crucial role in the base game’s story pointed to a complicated fate in store for him in Khaos Reigns.

4. Legacy of Kain

Crystal Dynamics’ remaster of one of its most popular IPs was one of the best-kept secrets of one of Sony’s recent State of Play events, a surprise that was sure to set fans of the 1996 classic Legacy of Kain abuzz with excitement for its December 2024 release.

However, leaks about the event and the game’s reveal robbed its fans of the privilege of experiencing a surprise that Sony spent a long time preparing for in a blow to the studio ahead of one of its most exciting events of the year. While fans of the title were understandably excited about getting to relive its excellent story, Sony will wonder about how much better the reveal could have been if not for the unfortunate leak that it could not have seen coming.

3. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Insomniac’s take on the neighborhood-friendly web-slinger from Marvel comics was all kinds of excellent when it made its way to the PS5 in 2023. While the base game ended on a cliffhanger that all but confirmed a new addition to the console-exclusive franchise, data miners took things a step further with leaks about a potential DLC expansion that would see an obscure presence from Spider-Man’s gallery of villains bring the fight to New York City.

While not a major spoiler in and of itself, the rumors were all the more devastating to Insomniac fans considering that it eventually scrapped the idea of an expansion to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 in order to better focus on its upcoming take on Wolverine in a title that shares a universe with Peter Parker and Miles Morales.

2. Starfield: Shattered Space

Bethesda’s sprawling intergalactic adventure had many players thrilled with the prospect of an expansion to its convoluted narrative that had its players hoping for additions to the game that made quality-of-life changes to its exploration. The studio’s talent at giving its players exactly what they would like to see was somewhat undermined by leaks that spoiled one of its biggest reveals of the year scheduled for Gamescom 2024.

With the REV-8 being a major addition to the base game while having a role to play in its expansion, leaks about the new vehicles’ addition to the game were a major spoiler for fans eager to see what the studio was about to do while also throwing a wrench in Bethesda’s plans to reveal it alongside the expansion’s release date.

1. Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2

Space Marine 2 has been a largely successful outing for Saber Interactive and Focus Entertainment considering its excellent use of the Warhammer 40k lore that underlines its main campaign as well as its multiplayer offerings. Largely seen as a love letter to fans of Games Workshop’s long-standing IP, the game brings many Chapters of the Space Marines into play, creating a lot of speculation about potential additions to its roster later down the line.

Leaks about the game’s upcoming armor customization options were a blow to the studio considering how Warhammer fans familiar with its lore could pick up on even the tiniest details and take educated guesses on what it had in store for them in future updates and expansions.

While not an exhaustive list of gaming leaks that ruined the fun for players and developers alike in 2024, these leaks are a showcase of how the gaming industry does not have an answer to the problem of keeping important details about upcoming titles under wraps.

With many leakers gaining a lot of popularity for the accuracy of any information that they provide to the gaming community at large, it is time for the industry to wake up to a problem that has remained a constant problem with no solution in sight. However, developers and publishers can take heart in knowing that their fans have their back and will continue to enjoy new titles as long as they are made well and deliver experiences that continue to enthrall them.