There’s a reason why game development companies are so careful about how much they reveal about their games prior to their actual release, and are usually reluctant to give out too much information, especially during the early stages of development. It has been shown time and time again that if gamers see early footage of a game, it can give a very wrong impression and paint the game in a negative spotlight if it works poorly.
And that’s actually in cases where gamers have known very clearly that they’re looking at pre-alpha footage or something of that sort. It doesn’t matter if the developers themselves release a video and slap a big warning in the beginning that it’s not representative of the final product – plenty of people will still get it wrong.
Which is why, when a game actually gets hit by a leak, this can be even more damaging, causing an even more negative reception of the game’s features. This is what “Tom Clancy’s The Division” has been suffering from lately, as the game recently suffered from a major leak which showed it in a somewhat negative light.
And as some gamers thought, the leak was actually from the game’s early testing stages, meaning that it’s far from what the final product is going to look like. However, the damage is already done, as the leaked materials have spread like wildfire and briefly became the main point of discussion for various online communities.
Ubisoft have tried to do some damage control by releasing public statements about the situation. According to them, the version of the game shown in those pictures is a severely limited one, missing large portions of its levels and other important gameplay features. It’s designed in this way in order to allow for easy testing of important elements, but it can give a very wrong impression of the game to people who don’t know how game development and testing work in general.
One of the main criticisms fans had about the leaked footage was the quality of graphics it depicted. Fans were worried that the game had been downgraded after it was initially previewed as a very beautiful, expansive title with a vast world. Its graphics were actually one of the main points in its initial marketing, so it seemed puzzling to many people that Ubisoft would downgrade this specific aspect of the game. And as it turns out, that’s not the case, and the studio is still planning to release the title in its full glory. We should see a little more information soon, as Ubisoft are apparently quite determined to restore the game’s positive image at the moment.