Valve, the American publisher and developer (Counter-Strike, Dota 2, Team Fortress, Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead) and operator of the Steam digital distribution store, has become the victim of another massive leak.
Image source: Valve
According to Maxim Poletaev (aka Gabe Follower), a data digger who specializes in Valve activities, and blogger Scolcer, 12 terabytes of the studio’s archives from 2003 to 2013 have been made public.
according to gabe followers and Scorsellthe leak turned out not to be the result of a hacker attack, but the result of a Valve error. The file was discovered on a public access point connected to Steam2, an outdated system for delivering and storing game content.
Screenshots from an early version of Portal 2, featuring unreleased weaponized weapons from Half-Life 2: Episode III
Valve used Steam2 from 2003 to 2013, so the leak is limited to this time period. The archive includes a range of game assets and in-house builds, including early versions of Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, CS:GO and F-Stop (the prequel to Portal).
The community also hoped to find information in the leaked information about Half-Life 2: Episode III, a continuation of the mythology of Half-Life 2: Episode II, the prototype of which was in development at the time.
Screenshots from an early version of Left 4 Dead
The Steam2 data set contains not only game data from Valve, but also game data from third-party studios. Data hunters have discovered several Sonic the Hedgehog betas in the archives, and that’s just the beginning.
As Gabe Follower points out, the sheer size of the leak means it may take some time to investigate the leaked material (see below). preliminary list). Valve has yet to comment on the matter.
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