Yesterday, I reposted the supposed leak from a supposed insider. A couple of people questions why I would do that and if it were appropriate for my blog.

The short answer is YES. However, let me explain.

On Friday, when the news broke of Halo 5 Guardians, we were all generally excited. It had been leaked the night before that we would hear of some news, just not specifically what that news would be. Did that take away from the news for me? Not at all. In fact it got me even more excited as I figured I wouldn’t be blindsided by info and could quickly share it with all of you good readers.

As evidenced on this very blog, theories abounded about the name, the concept art, and more. It was fun to guess, make conjecture, etc.

Fast forward to yesterday when someone wrote out a “leak” of what Halo 5 Guardians’ plot would be and what would be in multiplayer. Along with this Frank O’Connors reaction to it.

As a Halo fan, I would want to know if a leak happened, and more so, if the leak were TRUE. As a Halo blogger, I felt it my DUTY to report this news to you folks and repeatedly make mention that this news was NOT confirmed by 343.

While it may be disappointing to those at 343 (and understandably so), leaks happen in MANY industries. I see this happen very often in the toy industry. What does bother me is it seems that once again, 343 ids ill prepared to handle such leaks, be they true or not. Yes, in a perfect world, the developers themselves would be the ones to announce the news of their game. To do this, they really need to vet their employees more fully as well as those who play test for them, as the leaker claims to be one of.  Regardless of that though, many of we fans have starved for ANY info about the next Halo game. Friday’s reveal was a great start, but was very minor in actuality, despite the coverage it received, here and elsewhere.

What we fans do NOT want to see is 343 once again ignoring stuff like leaks. Frank’s plea is a mixed bag with folks. Go on any number of forums and you’ll see people both for and against Frank on the issue. For the record, I completely understand Frank’s frustration. However, I do think he could have handled it more diplomatically.

As an example, it might have been said this way:

We are still more than a year from release of Halo 5 Guardians. Any information that comes from a source that is not 343 and/or Microsoft needs to be treated as rumor. 

He could have also gone on to say:

This information is rather all encompassing. Some things may come to pass while others may not. It is still too early for us to discuss any of the finer details of the game as we are in development of it. In the months ahead, we will reveal things in due time.

Something like either of those statements would quell the leak somewhat. One issue though is that there are many fans who are leary of not having a straight up answer from 343. When you consider what they talked about before Halo 4 was released, then what we got in the game, there is reasonable cause for pause here. We asked of the “perks” rumor. They denied it or tried to twist it around, yet that’s essentially what we got.

There are other things I could go on about. The pint being, people are not as quick to trust when they have felt some varying degree of being “burned” or “deceived.”

As a person who has nearly 20 years in marketing, I’ve see whole ad campaigns, that have been in the works for months or longer, utterly destroyed by just ONE bad PR incident. Pro/competitive players are curious about what Halo 5’s multiplayer will bring. Is it more of the same? Will we have ranks again? Ranked and Social Playlists? And again, the list could go on. Halo Lore folks, like myself, are really jonesing for any information about what the next campaign will be.

So, YOU have to decide for yourself. Did this leak HURT or HELP Halo 5? It is my opinion that even if this information is wrong, it has still created more of a stir for the game. That can only be a good thing. Of course, if you believe all of that leak, you may well be in for a surprise and/or a let down. So do yourselves a favor and do not take it seriously. Until/Unless 343 refutes it, it should be considered rumor/conjecture/supposition by someone.

As to those questioning me personally about having that info on the blog… As I expressly said it should be considered rumor, not official, and the like, I think I’ve made it abundantly clear where I stand on this. With respect to those questioning me, is there any harm in reporting this? How am I any different than the likes of IGN for instance? Is it because they are a HUGE site that they are allowed to report on this? I should hope you good readers would actually appreciate reading this at a fan’s site, than one of the mega gaming news sites that posts the story for news fodder and moves on. I am very much entrenched in Halo. You see that on a daily basis when you come here to the blog. If I thought posting that would ruin my credibility, might I have considered posting it? The answer there is NO. I still would have posted it. Why? Well to put it bluntly, this is MY blog. I pay for it. I didn’t leak this info. I just reposted it.

One BIG reason why I created this blog was because I was being censored or held back at another Halo site I was heavily involved with. I want to share everything I can and in a responsible way. If I was being responsible about the leak article, I would have said it was true or something along those lines. I hope you all think and know better of me than that.

So you won’t find me apologizing for reposting the leak. If anything, it may just keep 343 “honest”. Meaning that they are more under the gun to deliver clear, concise, and timely information about Halo 5 Guardians, rather than try to keep things so secret. That approach failed them miserably with Halo 4. I think most of us would agree that we don’t want to see Halo 5 fail either. Especially because 343 can’t handle leaks or PR incidents.

I’ve said repeatedly that I only wish the best success for 343 and I still mean that.

-Sal