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MultiVersus director says dataminer leaks ‘ruin’ reveals for fans-Adam Starkey-Entertainment – Metro
The director behind MultiVersus has expressed his frustration with dataminers who spoil new character announcements, saying they do a ‘disservice’ to players.
MultiVersus is waging war against dataminers (Warner Bros.)
The director behind MultiVersus is upset at dataminers who spoil new character announcements, saying they do a ‘disservice’ to players.
Dataminers have been a standard part of the video game world for a long time now, revealing details about live service games such as Fortnite and Apex Legends long before they’re officially announced.
While the ease with which dataminers discover hidden information suggests some developers welcome the marketing boost that often comes with it, it’s understandable that there would be some frustration when an announcement is discovered months ahead of time – spoiling any chance of a surprise.
Warner Bros. crossover fighter MultiVersus, which returns this month, has already had many of its characters leaked via dataminers – including The Joker two years ago – and now the game’s director has spoken out against the practice.
In a new interview, MultiVersus director Tony Huynh agreed when it was suggested that the efforts of dataminers are both impressive and depressing.
‘That’s right,’ Huynh told VGC. ‘I mean, yeah, I think it’s a disservice to the players, honestly, that these things are ruined, and it’s deflating for the team as well.
‘But more importantly, it’s – I wouldn’t use the word ‘depressing’ – it’s just unfortunate for the players. They don’t get the grand reveal that we have planned, and a lot of the air is sucked out of the room. But these things happen, so we’re trying to prevent them from occurring in the future.’
Huynh described the battle to stop announcements being spoiled as an ‘arms race’, with the team having to implement ‘constant protections against new and creative ways to datamine’ over the course of development.
‘At the end of the day, we’ve done a lot, we’ve learned a lot, but again, it is an arms race,’ he added. ‘I can’t promise that there won’t ever be leaks or anything like that. But on our end, we’ve done, I think, above and beyond what industry standards and protections there are.’
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Because datamined information comes directly from the game itself it tends to be much more accurate than any other leaked information, only proving incorrect if a feature is cancelled at the last minute.
It is a mystery though, as to why so many games appear to make it easy for dataminers to find information, with references to new content often failing to use codenames and image files being added long before they’re used publicly.
This is why many assume publishers are actually pleased at the free publicity, and welcome the attention of dataminers, even if in this case Huynh is against it.
After being released in beta form in 2022, MultiVersus is set to launch on May 28 with new modes and an expanded roster, including Jason Voorhees and Agent Smith from The Matrix.
Shaggy vs Superman in MultiVersus (Warner Bros.)
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