Latvian Hitman
Member
Breaking embargos is not prophesy. Nor does it require any particular skill or insight. Ultimately he is taking or being given information and leaking it, illegally and often erroneously.
And he isn't doing it for some noble or worthy reason. He's doing it for attention.
People, including nice people with kids and families and stuff, work super hard on this stuff and wake up in the morning to find some of their effort blown up.
It's not fun, and for what? So you can have a mildly interesting surprise 8 hours early and lacking context? Or get hyped or disappointed disproportionately?
Or get someone fired or someone innocent yelled at?
Ok. But it isn't prophecy, nor ultimately even important. It's annoying.
Totally understand where you're coming from, but this coin has two sides. Leaks helped save MS from itself to a large extent last year. Details about the DRM policy and Kinect 2.0's data collection practices started leaking last spring and got everyone's attention. Then, as we headed into summer, it became clear that the leaks had been largely accurate. The fury over these details had been building for a while, and it all hit critical mass right after E3.
Had that not been the case, MS would have had very little room to maneuver with regard to changing those practices and would likely have had to choose between delaying the hardware launch or seeing the console absolutely tank.
Leakers, as you say it, can definitely be self-serving and off-base. But they also regularly disseminate information that is in the consumer's best interest to know.