Why the Leaker WON’T Leak the Ending (or Major Spoilers)

One thing this leaker keeps trying to illustrate is that he’s doing this for the gamers who he feels have been screwed over by Rockstar’s business practices. He’s positioning himself as pro gamer and pro consumer (which is obviously not true, he’s an attention seeker pretending to be altruistic).

However, leaking the ending and major spoilers probably won’t affect Rockstar as much as people are speculating. The Last of Us Part II is a prime example of a game that had major portions leaked before release, ending and all, and it still sold extremely well. The people this leak will actually affect are the gamers who’ll have their excitement hampered, but who won’t necessarily stop themselves from buying the game just because the ending’s been leaked.

As soon as the leaker actually leaks the ending, I think most public opinion will turn against him, and at that point he’ll have no real power over either the gamers or the studio. As long as he keeps dangling the possibility of spoiling the game over Rockstar, he can at least feel like he has leverage, while the gamers who like to catastrophise everything can look up to him as some kind of pro consumer bastion.

But the moment he actually does the thing he’s threatening to do, he’s done. He has no leverage anymore.

It’s basically hostage taker rationale 101. If someone takes a hostage for what they claim are altruistic reasons, like demanding Medicare for All, some people might sympathise with the cause even if they don’t support the crime. But the moment that person kills the hostage, public sympathy disappears and so does most of their leverage.

That’s why I don’t think actually leaking the ending helps his supposed cause at all. The threat is where his power comes from. Once he follows through, that power is gone.