Are Leaks Ruining Video Games?

I remember growing up the only breaking speculation you'd get new information was from new trailers I remember how shocked I was when a new Super Smash Bros character trailer would just come out randomly or at least in my eyes they did. I had the same with Pokémon which is where the main topic of this comes from. 

Over the more recent generations of games we've seen a large gathering of 'leak information' while started as false posts by people claiming their dads best friend works in marketing for Game Freak and would post any random rubbish it has changed to sources that leak information that is 100% genuine. The way they get this information unkown the main thing it is correct, people flock to hear all about anything they say this person holds power in the comminuty of the game in question but I wanted to put my thoughts down on leaks when it comes to video games and if it is a negative to fans.

I should state to begin with that I actively seek these leaks out, I follow the riddle for Pokémon leaks it's something I enjoy personally, seeing what sort of ideas are presenting themselves for the next generation is what I like, I like to prepare a team far in advance and normally only use new Pokémon so to get the full list of options helps me out right away, what annoys me is that Pokémon seems so slow on relasing news, here I sit in July with a November release date for Scarlet & Violet and outside of the box art legendaries and first stage of the starters we know 3 new Pokémon no idea if they evovle yet and it feels like we won't for a while. I found this fustrating with Sword and Shield I ended up doing my prep work on the full Pokédex leak which game with the datamine of review copies and probably will have to do the same here (as I did for Legends Arcues as well). Maybe I'm not patient enough but you'd think with the game 4 months away you'd want to raise hype more.

Perhaps I should look to the other side of the coin people who don't want to be spoilt. Leaks being plastered all around, 'well ___ says this is what it wil levovle into', your favourite Pokémon Youtuber uploading a video with leaks all in the thumbnail it must be annoying. You have to mute dozens of accounts and even more words to get around it for a specific interest and then someone you follow just puts a photo of the final starter evolutions and it just gets you. For those people yeah this will ruin what they play a game for, the surprise the mystery (and then the let down when they one Pokémon you really like has a terrible evolution and you don't want to use it anymore but just spent half a day levelling it up). Maybe more care in the information spread is needed to compensate with this.

However, maybe this as a whole is just a new marketing technique. You leak small samples of information out not clear HD pictures so it looks like something you shouldn't see or just offhand information to people that your community around your game know it raises interest in seeing the final product. It's like a trusted jounralist getting the exclusive scoop of the next transfer your team makes (shout out David Ornstein). I mean if it's a marketing move you don't have to spend money making as many trailers and can just work on the game, it makes sense but is a bit of a let down you have to find the happy medium.

All in all it feels that beyond Pokémon leak culture for video games is here to stay. People are always going to have a split on this, it's the same as having too many trailers for movies or games ruins the surprises. Truth be told I don't think a happy medium is achievable. Too much to one person is not enough for another. Others want to know nothing while others want to know everything, it's difficult to say if leaks ruin video games because we don't know if it is just a replacement for mass trailers for games so did trailers ruin video games before it? For me no they don't but that's because I don't mind spoilers it is something that will depend on your own personal opinion on seeing information before getting a game.