8 Video Game Leaks That Changed EVERYTHING
4. Mass Effect 3
Mass Effect 3 was one of the most anticipated games of the 2010s, and in November 2011 - some four months before release - a private beta was leaked online.
The beta contained a sliver of both the game's single-player and multiplayer modes, but far more concerningly players sifted through the code and found a full script, elements of which caused considerable concern among the fanbase.
This led BioWare to actually rejig parts of the script in the final months of development, such as removing an opening sequence in which Commander Shepard is on trial for destroying the Alpha Relay in Mass Effect 2's Arrival DLC.
The list of changes between the leaked script and the final game is comprehensive, and while we can't say for sure that all of these changes were due to the leaks, BioWare openly said at the time that they listened to the fan feedback and acted accordingly.
Still, that didn't stop them from serving up an absolute clunker of an ending regardless.
Even so, to see a company rework a game's story in the final months of development due to a leak was basically unheard of at the time.