This past weekend was a big one for fans of the highly anticipated Halo Infinite as 343 Industries put out a playable technical preview for the game. In it, fans were able to get a feel for the game's multiplayer by playing small arena slayer matches against bots of differing difficulties. For many, this look into Halo Infinite was a welcome one as there hasn't been much in terms of big news about the game following its full-year delay last August.
Unfortunately, alongside the good of the Halo Infinite technical preview, came some unforeseen leaks in the form of story spoilers. What's even more unfortunate is that a small group of fans of The Last of Us 2 is purposefully spreading the spoilers to fans of Halo Infinite in the name of revenge which, ironically, completely misses the point of the game they claim to love. This article does not contain spoilers for Halo Infinite, but it does contain spoilers for The Last of Us 2.
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While there won't be any details regarding what's in the campaign leaks for Halo Infinite in this article, it's important to know what the nature of the leaks is to understand why they're being spread around maliciously and not out of excitement. 343 Industries' Halo Infinite creative director Joseph Staten addressed the leaks by taking to Twitter and saying that, "we unintentionally included a small number of #HaloInfinite campaign files in the tech preview build. Unfortunately, these files contain spoilers." In an additional tweet, Staten goes on to ask fans to not spread spoilers in order to preserve the experience for those wishing to play the game and experience its narrative as the studio intended.
As mentioned in Staten's tweet, the campaign spoilers were found by data miners looking through the Halo Infinite technical preview's code. While it may only contain "a small number" of files, those spreading the leaks seem to have a pretty solid outline for what's going to happen beat-for-beat in the game's plot including its ending and major plot twists. Although it did come directly from Halo Infinite's code, it's important to remember that it's likely that not everything found in the leaks will be 100% accurate, and some elements, while accurate, may be taken out of context meaning that the full picture is still not being shown. Anyone looking to avoid spoilers for the game should consider muting key phrases revolving around Halo Infinite on Twitter and closing all direct messages from strangers.
Developer 343 Industries has made it clear that this weekend's technical preview won't be the last early look at Halo Infinite, so hopefully, the next early access look won't contain any more plot spoilers or other information to add to the leakers' arsenal. Another potential outcome is that 343 might intentionally include some inaccurate or fake information in hopes of misleading and confusing leakers to keep the game's plot shrowded in whatever mystery the studio can put together.
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Games made by Naughty Dog have a heavy emphasis on their narratives, so when spoilers for the major plot elements of The Last of Us 2 leaked online, fans were rightly upset. Spoilers regarding Joel's death and the perspective shift that divides the game were huge, however, not all of the information included in the leaks was accurate. Despite the lack of way at the time to confirm what was and was not true, the spoilers were shared as if it all was accurate leading to plenty of fans swearing off the game before it was even released.
Plenty of people were spoiling The Last of Us 2 before it came out for a handful of reasons: some were upset over Naughty Dog's willingness to kill a fan-favorite character, others spoiled the game in hopes of gaining numbers for their hateful, transphobic, and misogynist viewpoints, and some Xbox fans seemingly shared spoilers out of spite for those on the opposing side of the perceived never-ending "console wars."
As a small section of The Last of Us 2 fans are maliciously sending Halo Infinite spoilers to fans of the upcoming game, the first question that comes to mind is: why? It seems like the people who felt the sting of a spoiled plot the hardest would be empathetic to those who are trying to avoid spoilers themselves, however, that doesn't seem to be the case here. As it turns out, the group of The Last of Us 2 fans are looking to get revenge for the spoiling of their game last year.
Many who are trying to ruin the plot for those looking forward to Halo Infinite believe that it's Xbox fans who are to blame for the leaks regarding The Last of Us 2 in 2020. While that might not be entirely inaccurate as some diehard Xbox fans might have been looking to ruin a PlayStation fan's enjoyment of the game, it's really not as simple as saying that one giant group of people are to blame for the spoilers and leaks out of The Last of Us.
After a handful of simple Twitter searches, it's clear that a lot of Halo Infinite fans have had the plot spoiled for them despite having no history of spoiling The Last of Us 2. Apparently, the messages regarding the futility of tribal lines displayed in the 2020 survival horror game were lost on a few of its more diehard fans. Some Halo fans have compiled lists of those who are blindly messaging plot spoilers so that the community as a whole can block them and stop the spread of the leaks. Hopefully, that slows the spread and gives some sort of protection for those trying to enter the game blind.
Halo Infinite is set to launch in Holiday 2021 on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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