A massive archive of games and unreleased builds uploaded to Steam from 2003 to 2013 has leaked online, and it includes never-before-seen versions of Portal 2 and many other games, alongside materials that could be related to the Half-Life 2: Episode Three that never saw the light of day.
The 12TB leak was spotted by GabeFollower earlier this week, who says it features “internal builds and game assets” that stretch over the course of a decade. The materials include in-development builds of classic Valve games – Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – alongside materials related to unreleased games, such as the Portal prequel called F-Stop and “potentially” information on Half-Life 2: Episode Three.
The Steam Terraleak doesn’t seem to have been the result of a hacker, but Valve’s now-retired content-delivery pipeline that was replaced more than a decade ago. “There has been no hacking. This is 100% Valve’s fault,” YouTuber Scolcer tweets online. “The Steam Teraleak was obtained from a site that was 100% accessible to the public. It was there for everyone to download. No passwords. Nothing. Hidden in plain sight, but with no protection whatsoever.”
Different Portal 2 builds have already surfaced, showing off levels and gameplay ideas that never made it into the final game. Notably, a ‘bullet time’ mechanic that slowed down time mid-air seems to have been scrapped sometime before release.
Since the huge Valve leak contains almost everything uploaded to Steam over a decade, it’s said that a large amount of third-party content is also floating around. Games made outside of Valve’s offices could be similarly affected, then. Aesthetic Gamer tweets that beta builds for Alan Wake, Sonic 4, American McGee’s Alive, and Fallout New Vegas could be part of the files. Pre-release content related to Dragon Age: Origins and Batman: Arkham Asylum might also be kicking around.
GabeFollower does mention that it will take days, at least, for fans to comb through the entire 12TB of information. We probably won’t get a full picture of everything hiding in these Steam leaks for a while, so don’t get too excited about the prospect of Half-Life 3 news just yet.