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The developers and actors received a massive wave of negative comments and death threats.
Image credit: Naughty Dog, The Last of Us 2
In a recent documentary Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II, Neil Druckmann not only confirmed that there's a chance we might see the third part of The Last of Us series but also touched upon a heartbreaking leakage that happened back in 2020.
For those who don't remember, in April 2020, a major leak took place, involving materials from the then-in-development The Last of Us Part II. The leakage included gameplay footage and crucial spoilers, for example, connected to Joel's storyline, that was shared online.
Image credit: Naughty Dog, The Last of Us 2
As the team shared, it started with a video from their review meeting, which was intended for internal viewing for the teammates who couldn't attend the meeting, and no one knew how the leak happened.
However, they later discovered that a fan from the Netherlands had accessed and downloaded "terabytes of videos through a backdoor in the server." Although the company quickly addressed the security issue, the hacker had already uploaded the videos on YouTube.
As a result, a significant amount of material related to The Last of Us Part II became public, which led to a hit of negative feedback and threats directed at the developers.
"There's just all this negativity and no positivity because no one has played the game. They just have these videos out of context and all these rumors mixed with them," shared Druckmann.
When the crucial moment connected to Joel's storyline was leaked, everyone was just devastated.
"And my heart sinks. I can't even describe this feeling, it's just dread," added Druckmann.
After the leak, the developers and actors of the game faced numerous death threats.
"The hatred I think that was behind it… I was sad. There were a lot of days where I would just cry," said Ashley Johnson, the actress behind Ellie's character.
Every time I went online, that's all I saw. Just death threats and threats of violence, and... The worst of it, the really hardcore death threats, got passed along, and they made sure that they weren't anyone that lived close by," shared Laura Bailey, the game's Abby. "Um… Yeah, they were threatening my son. You know, who was born during all of it."
The leak happened just two months before the game's release, leaving Naughty Dog unable to make any changes.
Anyway, the developers kept the game the way it was and completed it, and it still went on to receive highly positive reviews from the press and players.
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