A new report claims that the recent PlayStation State of Play leaks were sold by a YouTube employee for a small amount of money. Last week, we shared a report that YouTube had conducted an internal investigation after an increasing amount of video game information was leaked prior to trailers going live. Two follow-up reports have since emerged, indicating that the problem is far more serious than it looks.
Google/YouTube contractors and employees behind PlayStation and Nintendo leaks
A scathing report published by 404 Media yesterday revealed that a Google contractor used admin access to leak Nintendo announcements before they happened. Going off that report, Tom Henderson of Insider Gaming — who himself is an insider — revealed that within hours of Sony scheduling last week’s State of Play, he was contacted by at least four different individuals with a complete list of games that were going to be at the event.
Henderson chose not to publish the list, but we did see it shared by two known “insiders” on Twitter. One of the individuals that contacted Henderson actually told him that they had sold the State of Play games list for “a small three-figure amount.”
According to Henderson, YouTube and parent company Google are aware of the problem but haven’t been able to adequately address it. Companies don’t have the option of uploading trailers at the last minute because of YouTube’s processing times. Additionally, they need to kick off marketing activities well before time.
Perhaps the most troubling part of both new reports is that Google and YouTube contractors, not just employees, have access to private information.