Red Dead Redemption 2: The Story Behind the Most Expensive Game Leak

Late last week, a British technology website called Trusted Reviews announced it was taking down one of its articles. The article was originally published back in February of this year and included leaked Red Dead Redemption 2 information. Trusted Reviews also announced it would be paying $1.3 million to charity as an apology for publishing the article. So why was the article taken down, and why did Trusted Reviews have to make such a large payment?

Red Dead Redemption 2 and the Case of the Expensive Game Leak

Reporting leaked information isn’t exactly a new phenomenon in the world of video game journalism. In the case of leaks, though, publications follow due diligence. Trusted Reviews, however, clearly didn’t do enough of it.

It seems Trusted Reviews received the leaked Red Dead Redemption 2 information way back in August of 2017. By February of 2018, some of the specific info points in the leak had been verified by Rockstar. Therefore, Trusted Reviews felt comfortable publishing the entirety of the document it had received. Unfortunately, Trusted Reviews didn’t follow through on the source of the leak.

One Red Dead Redemption 2 leak cost a British publication $1.3 million.

Trusted Reviews didn’t find out until after publishing that the leak’s source was indeed illicit in nature. Red Dead Redemption 2 publisher Take-Two Interactive took legal action, but it didn’t directly sue Trusted Reviews for damages. Instead, the companies decided on a settlement involving the article’s removal and a charity donation. As per the settlement, Trusted Reviews is making a donation of 1 million British pounds ($1.3 million) to three specific charities. The three charities are the American Indian College Fund, the American Prairie Reserve, and the First Nations Development Institute.

For more on Red Dead Redemption 2, you can read our thoughts on when the game’s online component will arrive. We also looked at the game’s upcoming soundtrack release which includes over 110 different contributors.

Thanks to Kotaku’s Jason Schreier and Keza MacDonald.