During last week, someone leaked gameplay videos and important plot points from The Last of Us Part II that started circulating on different forums and discussion boards. It was rumored that the leaked material originally was circulated by a team member of Naughty Dog who was unhappy with the situation. Now, a new report indicates that hackers were responsible for all of these leaked materials.
According to the journalist Jason Schreier, from his Twitter account, he revealed that he chatted with 2 people who have “direct knowledge” about how The Last of Us: Part II was leaked and with some Naughty Dog employees. They informed him that it was hackers who released game material for the PlayStation 4. Recall that Sony pointed out that those responsible are not affiliated with Naughty Dog.
But how did they get this material? What Schreier was informed is that hackers found a vulnerability in a patch for another Naughty Dog game, which they took advantage of to access the studio’s servers.
It should be mentioned that Schreier believes that the leaked material is footage of developers playing an early version of the game.
OK: After talking to two people with direct knowledge of how TLOU2 leaked as well as some Naughty Dog employees, I have a good idea of what happened. Short version: hackers found a security vulnerability in a patch for an older ND game and used it to get access to ND’s servers.
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 3, 2020
As we mentioned before, information began to circulate on the Internet that claimed that the person responsible for leaking The Last of Us: Part II was an employee bothered by his working conditions. That is, they said that the one who supposedly did this was someone complaining about the crunch and lack of payment.
I think the footage that leaked is from devs playing an early build (I haven’t watched it). Most importantly, rumors of this being an act of protest by a contractor whose pay was robbed are not true. (ND actually extended pay and healthcare benefits for contractors due to covid)
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 3, 2020
With this in mind, Schreier noted that the above is inaccurate. As we already mentioned, it seems that those responsible were hackers and also, he also said that Naughty Dog extended pay and labor rights during the pandemic.
The Last of Us Part II will release on June 19, 2020 on PlayStation 4.
