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Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy V (1992)
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Attachment The translation group RPGe's 1998 English translation of Final Fantasy V is considered to be one of the most widely-played and influential fan translations in video game history. It gained this reputation because it released before Squaresoft's first official translation in Final Fantasy Anthology in late 1999, and despite RPGe primarily consisting of inexperienced teenagers, it was regarded as a better translation than the official one, leading many Western players to first experience the game through it.

The first translation attempts stemmed from widespread confusion over Squaresoft not releasing three FF games in the West: Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy III, and FFV. Their decision to release Final Fantasy VII internationally under its original numbering after Final Fantasy VI was released in the West a few years earlier as the "third" game in the series also contributed to this.

The co-creator of RPGe, named Shadow, was inspired by an incomplete FFII translation by users Demi and Som2freak (the latter having later lent Shadow tools to work on FFV), and started translating FFV by making flashcards for which hex code corresponded to each Japanese and English character in the game's data. He promoted his efforts online using photoshopped FFV images and recruited other users to create RPGe, including translator David Timko, and a computer engineering major named Hooie who also asked Japanese instructors at his university to help translate some enemy names. RPGe's plan was to directly edit their English script into the text files of a ROM of the Japanese version, but their work was slow and tedious due to them having little experience with fan translations and being out of touch with fledgling emulation communities. This lead to technical issues with their text and sprite editing software, and English characters being poorly displayed under conditions that were originally designed for larger Japanese characters. The group also suffered from internal factionalism, and since Shadow promoted himself as the public face of the project, he found that he could not handle the attention and controversy that came from how seriously he took the project and RPGe itself, seeing the translation effort as a vital service to the Squaresoft fan community. After Demi published a lengthy post parodying Shadow, he "snapped" and left RPGe. The co-founders of RPGe would also eventually step down, but other users would take over and start their own work.

A user named Myria, who had argued against RPGe's hex editing approach to no avail, split off from their efforts beforehand to work on a separate translation. Sharing similar setbacks to them, she gradually parsed through the code used to handle the text files, and edited it so it could recognize English characters of different sizes and fit more in a dialogue box. Som2freak helped translate the script for a time, but then left the project after bringing on a new editor, named harmony7, who started heavily revising Som2freak's translations to his chagrin despite seeing several issues with it.

One of the most controversial aspects of the translation was the main character's name. Squaresoft's later English translation named him "Bartz", but RPGe's translation named him "Butz", which many joked sounds like "butts". Myria claimed that Butz was the most accurate translation based on documents and official merchandise using it "the way we'd written it" (for reference, the Romanized version of the Japanese name "バッツ" comes out as "Battsu"). However, Butz is used in real life as an actual German surname with a different pronunciation, the vowel being an "oe" sound like in the English words "put" and "good". Therefore, Bartz would make more sense to match up with the vowels in the Japanese name than Butz, and also fits better as a German first name since Bartz is a pet name for Bartholomäus (Bartholomew).

The bulk of Myria's technical work ended in October 1997, with harmony7 still working to revise the entire script until something unexpected happened. An early version of the fan translation mysteriously appeared on a Geocities website with others taking credit for it. This prompted RPGe to release their work up to that point as "v0.96" on October 17, 1997, with the final patch eventually being released in June 1998. The translation patch received acclaim for its technical aspects and near-professional writing quality, and influenced other players to become translators, including Clyde Mandelin who would later create the English fan translation for Mother 3. Squaresoft never contacted RPGe about the translation, and while their 1999 localization of the game was seen as inferior to RPGe's, Myria would later opine that Square Enix's 2006 localization in Final Fantasy V: Advance was better than theirs. Myria continued hacking and reverse-engineering games and eventually earned a job at an undisclosed major video game company.
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Cancelled Release, Complaint, Development, Emulation, Etymology, Fan Translation, General, Leak, Merchandise, Mistranslation, Modding, Name Change, Parody, Real Life, Regional Difference, Social Media, Technology, Website
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month December 24, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Princess Peach: Showtime!
Princess Peach: Showtime! (2024)
subdirectory_arrow_right Good-Feel (Company)
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Good-Feel being the development company behind Princess Peach: Showtime! was not officially revealed until the day before the game's release, where it was discovered via the game's credits. It was also revealed through the credits that the game had been directed by Good-Feel president Etsunobu Ebisu, who had not directed a game since Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon in 1997. Two weeks prior to this, however, Good-Feel's involvement was leaked via the code from the game's demo version. When asked who the development company was, Nintendo merely stated that it would be revealed in the game's credits.
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Demo, Development, General, Leak, Real Life
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month March 22, 2024
comment Comment (2) | Source
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Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (2014)
subdirectory_arrow_right Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Game)
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On August 18th and 19th, 2014, several weeks before Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS launched in Japan, one of the most influential leaks in the series occurred. Footage of the gameplay and the roster (including fighters who were not announced by Nintendo at the time) were uploaded to 4chan, and then YouTube. The legitimacy of the leaks were brought into question by fans (such as the consistency of the rosters compared to the one that was shown at E3 that year), with some speculating that the leaks originated from an employee connected to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), leading fans to refer to the leak as the ESRB leak. It was not until Nintendo took down the YouTube videos very shortly after they were uploaded when they were confirmed to be legitimate. Days later, Shulk would be revealed for the game in a Japanese Nintendo Direct, confirming the rest of the game's unannounced roster.

In 2023, it was discovered that the leaker was a child of a Nintendo of America employee. According to a DidYouKnowGaming? video researching the history of various video game leaks, the employee recorded footage of the game in action, which would be sent to the ESRB for review. The child gained access to it and shared the footage with his friends, before spreading out of control. Nintendo of America fired the employee shortly after word got out.
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General, Leak, Real Life, Regulatory Content Rating, Roster Speculation, Social Media, Version Difference
person GamerBen144 calendar_month January 23, 2024
comment Comment (2) | link Source
Silent Hill: The Short Message
Silent Hill: The Short Message (2024)
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Throughout 2022, there were several leaks in regards to the existence of Silent Hill: The Short Message. First, screenshots were leaked of a playable teaser for the game, where it was known under the working title "Silent Hill: Sakura". Then, in both September and December of that year, the game received age ratings in both South Korea and Taiwan, respectively. Additionally, when Konami began hiring for upcoming projects based on Silent Hill, one of the projects was an unannounced in-house game, which would later turn out to be Silent Hill: The Short Message.
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Development, Early Build, General, Leak, Name Change, Real Life, Regulatory Content Rating, Title
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month March 27, 2024
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X
X (1992)
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Attachment X was originally pitched under the name Eclipse and was developed under the title Lunar Chase. The single-letter rename came at the request of Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, who contacted director Yoshio Sakamoto early in the morning after playing the game.

The Lunar Chase name was retained for a planned English localization of the game, which was ultimately scrapped due to fears from Nintendo of America that international players would find the game's presentation and design too complex for a handheld title. Creator and programmer Dylan Cuthbert additionally blamed the cancellation on a presumed lack of interest from retailers in the United States. A prototype of the English version would eventually surface in 2020 as part of the Gigaleak, a massive leak of internal server data from Nintendo. The Eclipse pitch, meanwhile, was released to the public by the Video Game History foundation three years later.
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Cancelled Release, Corporate Affairs, Development, Leak, Pitch Bible/Proposal, Regional Difference, Title, Version Difference
person VinchVolt calendar_month March 26, 2024
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The Last of Us Part II
The Last of Us Part II (2020)
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Complaint, Corporate Affairs, Development, Early Idea, General, Injury, Inspiration, Leak, Motion Capture, Real Life, Social Media, Voice Acting
person ProtoSnake calendar_month January 20, 2024
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Here’s why Abby uses a golf club in ‘The Last of Us Part II’:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/03/03/golf-club-the-last-of-us/

The Last Of Us 2: Abby & Joel's Golf Club Scene Inspired By Real Story:
https://screenrant.com/last-us-2-abby-joels-golf-club-scene/

TLOU2 Abby Voice Actress Breaks Down Divisive Role:
https://screenrant.com/last-of-us-2-abby-laura-bailey-role/

A spoiler-heavy interview with The Last of Us Part 2 director Neil Druckmann:
https://www.eurogamer.net/a-spoiler-heavy-interview-with-the-last-of-us-part-2-director-neil-druckmann

Director For The Last Of Us Part 2 Says Abby Using A Golf Club Was Inspired By A Real-Life Accident:
https://www.thegamer.com/the-last-of-us-part-2-abby-golf-club-why/

Inside The Last of Us Part II's devastating plot twist: ‘People were stuck on how violent it is’:
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/the-last-of-us-part-2-remastered-joel-death
Batman
Batman (TBA)
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Leak, Name Change, Prototype, Title
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month January 5, 2024
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Super Donkey
Super Donkey (2020)
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While Super Donkey is thought to have ultimately evolved into Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, the project was likely tossed around as a Mario or Zelda game at various points in development.

Various development assets associated with Super Donkey, which were uncovered alongside the prototype in the 2020 Gigaleak, include sprites and animations for Link, Mario, and Donkey Kong; the animation files for Link are dated to fall 1990, while Mario's animation files are dated to winter of that year. Additional files for all three characters span overlapping periods in 1991. Link's sprites and animations indicate that Super Donkey was at one point planned to be a side-scrolling Zelda title similar to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, while Mario's animations imply that the iteration that starred him and Donkey Kong eventually morphed into the 1994 Game Boy title Donkey Kong.
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Development, Early Idea, Leak, Prototype, Sprite/Graphical Animation, Unused Character, Unused Code, Unused Content, Unused Graphic
person VinchVolt calendar_month January 5, 2024
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Sunset Overdrive
Sunset Overdrive (2014)
subdirectory_arrow_right Insomniac Games (Company)
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In the 2023 Insomniac Games ransomware data leak, a leaked financial document revealed the development costs, sales, and shares for every game Insomniac has worked on for years. Sunset Overdrive, a 2014 Xbox and PC exclusive game co-developed by Insomniac, sold 1,898,433 units for a total of $49,737,133, but only netted the company $567 in profit after costs had been divided. This is a testament to the fact that a modern game has to sell exorbitant amounts for the development studio to make back what it often invests in creating it, possibly being an indicator of why Insomniac pivoted to making games based on financially lucrative Marvel Comics properties.
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Corporate Affairs, Financial Affairs, General, Leak, Real Life, Suggested, Theory
person ProtoSnake calendar_month December 24, 2023
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Star Fox 64
Star Fox 64 (1997)
subdirectory_arrow_right Star Fox 64 3D (Game)
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Attachment As admitted by Mitsuhiro Takano (the original script writer for Star Fox 64) in an issue of Iwata Asks regarding Star Fox 64 3D, the development team had initially planned on including more aquatic stages based around the Blue Marine in the original game, but these were removed because they felt they dragged down the pace too much. In the Japanese version of the Aquas stage in Star Fox 64, Falco says:

こんな物　後にも先にも１回きりだぜ！(This is like the only time in our life we'll ever use this thing!)

English SF64's equivalent to this is "This thing will never hold together."

Apparently, this was the result of Takano feeling bad about there only being one underwater stage in all of SF64's single-player mode.

Going by files pertaining to Star Fox 64 found within the Nintendo Gigaleak, it seems one of these cut Blue Marine stages was known as カトレア (Katorea), which properly translates into Cattleya. Cattleya is a genus of orchids, which adds more credence that this was planned to be a beautiful water planet. The planet's initials (CL) show up in many other other source files, which gives clue to what it would've been like; for example, fox_edisplay references CL_SHIP0, CL_SHIP1, and fish00, whereas fox_boss.h refers to CL's boss as 鯖/saba, or "mackerel.” fox_jyuza.o meanwhile refers to a "saba snake", which heavily implies that the stage's boss would have been a giant fish creature or an eel of some kind.

Most of the other files label CL as "Colony", which implies that Cattleya would have been home to underwater cities. In beta versions of the map, CL is positioned between where Area 6 and Bolse would be, and presumably would have led into the cut planned Venom Normal route where Fox would have battled Andross on-foot with a bazooka.
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Development, Early Idea, Filename, Leak, Regional Difference, Source Code, Unused Content
person Dinoman96 calendar_month December 20, 2023
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War Thunder
War Thunder (2013)
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Starting in 2021, War Thunder's official forums became notorious for being the center point of multiple leaks of export-restricted or regionally classified military documents from around the world detailing how various weapons and transportation equipment like tanks and fighter jets are built. The leaks are attributed to the fact that the game strives to depict the minutiae of warfare as realistically as possible, leading to players with military connections, or access to resources that are publicly available in other regions, sharing the documents on the forums in order to prove points regarding what would or would not be accurate in-game. Despite the forum moderators quickly removing these posts and issuing multiple warnings about them breaching international law, the issue became so prominent and recurring that laypeople began spreading rumors that the United States military had to start filtering out War Thunder players during the recruitment process, which American weapons contractor RTX Corporation denied.
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General, Leak, Legal Affairs, Misconception, Real Life, Rumor, Social Media, Technology
person VinchVolt calendar_month December 13, 2023
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Platform: Nintendo GameCube
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Attachment Among the files uncovered in a massive 2020 breach of internal server data from Nintendo are documents surrounding Project BB2, a never-released, iQue-branded version of the GameCube for the Chinese market. According to an executive summary from January 30, 2004, this system would've played games off of CD-ROM and DVD-ROM discs rather than the GameCube's proprietary format; consequently, it also would've been compatible with audio CDs and DVD video like the Panasonic Q. Project BB2 was also intended to feature karaoke support, owed to karaoke's high popularity in China.
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Cancelled Release, Corporate Affairs, Development, Early Idea, Leak, Music, Real Life, Unreleased Hardware
person VinchVolt calendar_month November 9, 2023
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Platform: Nintendo Switch
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Attachment Among the material uncovered in the 2020 Gigaleak, a large-scale data leak from Nintendo's internal servers, was a series of documents surrounding Project INDY, an early iteration of the Nintendo Switch co-developed with ST Microelectronics. Project INDY was envisioned as a successor to the Nintendo 3DS and was halfway between it and the Wii U in terms of processing power.

The system would've carried over many of the 3DS' features, including dual-screen functionality, touch controls, stereoscopic 3D, motion sensors, augmented reality functionality, and StreetPass support. The system also would've featured backwards compatibility with 3DS game cards, Bluetooth connectivity (including support for wireless speakers and headsets), GPS functionality, a videotelephony app, the ability to wirelessly project games to a TV screen via Miracast, and support to quickly convert a commercially released unit into a developer system, easing development costs for independent studios. Many of these features would be carried over to the Switch in modified forms.

Technical documents for Project INDY show that while prototype software was developed for the system, Nintendo were unsure about its specifications and came up with various alternative options, such as support for 120 fps video, an 800p display, and a design with a single, oblong touchscreen that spans the full face of the device save for two joysticks near each end. The latter design was the final iteration that Nintendo came up with before ceasing work with ST Microelectronics in late 2014. By this point, Nintendo had devised the Switch's final name, listing it on the design's blueprints.

An earlier iteration of this oblong design would also become the basis for a hoax image created in the interim between Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's announcement of the Switch's development in March 2015 and the company's first public reveal of the device in October 2016. The image is a 3D-printed mockup of the Switch based on a patent filed earlier in 2014, which itself reveals that Nintendo was still considering stereoscopic 3D, backwards compatibility with 3DS games, and videotelephony support.
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Backwards Compatibility, Corporate Affairs, Development, Early Idea, Hoax, Leak, Patent, Prototype, Real Life, Removed Feature, Unreleased Hardware
person VinchVolt calendar_month November 9, 2023
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Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 (2023)
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Attachment In the weeks prior to Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2's release, a near-complete prototype build of the game leaked online. The Twitter account for the game's main developer, Fair Play Labs, accidentally retweeted a GIF of SpongeBob dancing from an unrevealed sound test mode and promptly deleted it. Community manager Thaddeus Crews expressed that, while he didn't have a particular moral problem with fans playing the leaked build, he advised against competitive players using it for practice due to how outdated it is.
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Competitive, Complaint, Corporate Affairs, Leak, Mistake, Prototype, Unreleased Content
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 30, 2023
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Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995)
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Attachment In a 1995 developer interview, Shigeru Miyamoto stated that the Super Star was originally going to briefly transform Baby Mario into his adult self. However, the idea was discarded after one of the developers pointed out that it would clash with the game's premise of being an origin story for the Mario brothers. Instead, Super Star Mario was redesigned to simply be Baby Mario in a yellow cape.

In 2020, sprites for Mario's adult form were uncovered as part of a massive leak of data from Nintendo's internal servers. These sprites indicate that Super Star Mario was not originally able to float in the air and that he was able to ride Yoshi to some extent (in the final game, Yoshi reverts to an egg until the Super Star wears off).
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Development, Early Idea, Leak, Sprite/Graphical Animation, Unused Graphic
person VinchVolt calendar_month October 27, 2023
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Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023)
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Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the first Mario game to feature Kevin Afghani as the voice of both Mario and Luigi, replacing Charles Martinet, who announced his retirement from voice acting and shift to a brand ambassador position earlier in 2023.

While Afghani didn't announce his involvement until October 13, 2023, his presence in the game was leaked two days earlier on 4chan, when an anonymous user datamined a kiosk demo and leaked the game's voice cast, backing this up with images showing parts of the game that hadn't been publicly revealed yet. Because the cast list didn't state the voice actors' roles, users used process of elimination to determine who Mario's voice actor was, incorrectly guessing that it was Mick Wingert after assuming that Afghani was only voicing the Talking Flowers. In a statement sent to IGN, Wingert's agent refuted the claim that he was voicing Mario, and was later revealed to actually be the voice for the Talking Flowers.
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Development, Leak, Real Life, Voice Acting
person VinchVolt calendar_month October 14, 2023
comment Comment (2) | link Source
Street Fighter V
Street Fighter V (2016)
subdirectory_arrow_right Street Fighter 6 (Game), Street Fighter (Franchise)
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Attachment When Rashid was unveiled as a playable character in Street Fighter V, his specific nationality was unknown, with players only knowing that he was Middle Eastern. However, in 2022 when the entire playable base game roster and first wave of DLC of Street Fighter 6 was leaked, it revealed a more specific country he was from, with Rashid confirmed as being Saudi Arabian.
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Backstory/Lore, General, Leak, Release Difference
person Kirby Inhales Jotaro calendar_month September 7, 2023
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Street Fighter 6 character art leak with Saudi Arabian flag:
https://www.gematsu.com/2022/06/street-fighter-6-artwork-of-22-playable-characters-leaked

Street Fighter Fandom wiki page:
https://streetfighter.fandom.com/wiki/Rashid
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (2021)
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Attachment Every single fighter intended for the base game of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, but not included in the reveal trailer, was leaked at some point:

• April O'Neil, Ren & Stimpy, CatDog, Aang, Korra were revealed on a silhouetted box art provided to retailers and revealed on announcement day. April's silhouette was vague enough that some people mistook her other characters, such as Carly from iCarly and the live action version of Dora the Explorer from the film Dora & the Lost City of Gold, but most fans deduced that is was April ahead of the reveal.
• Ren & Stimpy's inclusion was further proven by the discovery of an ESRB rating for the game, mentioning moves known as "Log Toss" (referencing a fictional toy from their show) and "First Fart" (referencing an episode of their show).
• A model lineup featuring Garfield was discovered from an unknown source before launch, it was confirmed to be real following the official reveal of Ren & Stimpy, whose models lined up with those featured in the leak.
• Toph was leaked by a rogue developer along with the stage line-up and scribbled out images of Garfield and Shredder. Garfield was not identified, but some players did manage to identify Shredder.
• Garfield and Shredder, who were intended for base game but had to be delayed as free DLC, were found inside the game's code through datamining immediately after launch.
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Leak, Mistake, Rumor, Unused Character, Unused Graphic
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month September 4, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Pokémon Gold Version
Pokémon Gold Version (1999)
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Silver Version (Game)
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Attachment Early builds of Pokémon Gold and Silver indicate that Celebi was originally designed after Kokopelli, a trickster figure, mythical flautist, and fertility deity worshiped by certain indigenous tribes in the American southwest (most prominently the Hopi and Anasazi). This is most apparent in a leaked build from May 6, 1998, in which Celebi's sprite is nearly identical to modern depictions of Kokopelli, with the only major deviation being the addition of eyes. A later design is present in the data for the Spaceworld 1999 demo, bearing a closer resemblance to Celebi's finalized sprite but retaining the Kokopelli motif.
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Character Design, Development, Early Build, Early Idea, Inspiration, Leak, Unused Graphic
person VinchVolt calendar_month March 16, 2024
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Company: Cyberdreams
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"Reverence" was one of the last announced projects by Cyberdreams, but never made it past the Alpha phase before the company's closure. The game saw the player being chosen by the gods themselves to help determine the future of the human race, whom the gods believed to have grown too apathetic and unjust to live. It was intended to be a first-person shooter game, with the player wielding a variety of guns and spells as they traveled through four different realms to decide the fate of humanity. Each realm was modelled after a real life mythological god, those being Osiris (Egyptian god of the underworld), Kokyangwuti (Hopi goddess of life), Freyja (Norse goddess of love), and Manjursi (Tibetan god of wisdom). While the game itself was cancelled, a playable prototype was leaked in 2015.
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Cancelled Release, Development, General, Leak, Prototype, Real Life
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month March 14, 2024
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