Amazing that basically one disgruntled employee ruined an entire studio, a studio that didn't want to single out anyone and instead took the bullet at the time. Cool.
SlackerKite this is the worst part. They claim that they wouldn't fire the employee and didn't want to call them out yet the employee harmed the company so much. That's basically a parasite mentality. It would have been better if they had discribed their perceived mistreatment in detail but it's probably a higher expected check or something minor. This is why some people are "over qualified". You might be great but if you're prone to being disgruntled because what you think you're worth and sabotage the company then you're a liability and not worth the experience you bring.
No dude, the problem is the self-righteous asshole who knows full well the damage he could do to the company and to his co-workers careers and does it anyway out of spite. If he was in any way decent or professional he should of approached his bosses and talked to them about the conditions or gathered other co-workers who felt the same to get some backing - the dude's a nutsack.
I really don't understand the disgruntled employee. he was mad at them because they treated him bad or whatever but instead of talking to a journalist about the bad treatment he just goes anonomously talk about the game they're making
Kenetic Kups the thing is, konami did it for him (in the gaming scene). Even if he tried to pull something off their massive PACHINKO division would've remained unscathed. Kojima went with the wise choice and took his entire studio with him to another company.
What a selfish prick! I don't know what his working conditions were, but if you're irritated with them quit your damn job... douchebag endangered everyone else's jobs and tanked the company. Seriously, if you want to just out this dude just this once I won't blame you lol
TheMindOfThomas No he's right, it's not ironic. Most people think irony (specifically situational irony) is something that is unexpected, surprising, coincidental, hypocritical, contradictory, or even fitting, but aren't the correct definitions. The definition is: an incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result. The example that OP made doesn't fit this definition at all. So many people have trouble with this word but try to act like they know to try to seem intelligent.
I don't know what this leaker went through in the company but ruining the livelihoods of dozens that had likely nothing to do with it was irresponsible, immature and pathetic.
You are absolute right. I have such A-Holes in my Company, they walking to the Doctor and staying Home, saying they want to hurt the Company. But others have to do their Jobs, if they do not, because they stay at Home. The same Level of irresponsible Egoism.
"If they had leaked the working conditions they found objectionable" Literally nothing would be done about that whatsoever, this happens all the time and companies ignore it 99% of the time. The dude did the only thing that would've changed things which was hurt their bottom line.
Well, yeah, it's why the Hype trains for so many of their games go so well. Smash bros games always have their fans excited beyond means during the lead-up tot heir games, and the pokemon fanbase clamors over a new entry to the main series. Hype is a very delicate thing that NEEDS to be managed, like a High Pressure water line, these "leaks" hinder the ability to handle the pressure effectively, leading to a trickle or a torrent that can damage something, A game just falls off the radar if too low, but if too high it becomes No Man's Sky, or Duke Nukem Forever.
I think it depends on what is leaked, but the problem is hype like lightningbro mentioned. It's a blessing and a curse. While hype is good for publicity, the problem is when expectations are set too high as a result. Nintendo wants to carefully show things so that it's in a more controlled environment. Otherwise it could simply be too volatile.
I really like the extensive research seen in this video. Most of the time it's secondary, even tertiary sources; sometimes even incorrect. You went out your way to uncover secrets that have never been published before. Keep up the good work!
man that really sucks. while its interesting to see that this might have been the reason splatoon was created in the first place, its just sucks to see this company lose its big potential project just due to one person leaking some details. that one person literally screwed over a lot of people in that company. It's a shame because I would have loved to see how this concept could have been fleshed out because the world already started to sound pretty great. I am glad though that all of those leaks back in 2011 are finally fully explained, cause I remember when those details first surfaced.
Cubby Master will if you Could get in some Contact to some Good indi Programmers that are good in First Party Shooters & 3rd Party Platforms Because if that happens then I can definitely get some people for the soundtrack. I can also help with the Concept art needed to make the Models To start with I think the Main Character would be Robo-Bun, a small Cute Bunny Robot who's Mission is to save his brainwashed Pals from the Evil virus A.I Coretex who acts as mother Brain for most Robotics If in Split screen Mutiplayer I could see Ralphie the Raccoon P2 Cathy the Cat P3 Protocon P4 Of Worlds World 1 Would be like Concept Art with the Boss being Wesley Riding a Fish Bot Word 5: A Junkyard, Ya I mean the one with Gears and Dead or rather Undead Autos and Robos World 6: a Clock Tower with Jazz Music and lots of Golden Gears (wait should Golden gears be a Collective item? World 7: The Core, in short your in Coretex's Digital World and it's here where we Finally Stop him.
You can never know that though. Keep in mind that early concept of Splatoon started out with Rabbits. A lot of things can change in a 3-4 year development cycle. The big takeaway is that it's great that we have Splatoon but it's shitty that some ass clown went and blew a whole studio out of the water and jeopardized peoples' livelihoods over a leak. The early concepts are interesting and robots wasn't a bad idea. who knows what this IP could of been under Nintendo's guidance. Especially when it wasn't considered to be multiplayer.
It really is heart breaking for me that HighVoltage could've worked with Nintendo similar to how Rare did back in the day. HighVoltage really could've revolutionized the way aiming with a gun worked in video games. Seriously. The controls for the conduit games were stellar. Almost better than main stream titles like Halo and Call of Duty to some degree.
The Halo games never had motion controls, so of course the Conduit games controlled better; but yeah it really is a highly underrated duology (especially the second game), and it's a real shame that the story will always end on that massive cliffhanger.
This honestly makes me so sad, everything with this from the Water-centric world design, to Megaman inspired characters looks SO good. Sad to see that, at bare minimum, this incarnation of the idea will never flourish.
lightningbro well Honesty I'm Collecting Failed Projects like these to make in the Future. I feel if the Robots were Chibi Animals like Cats and Bunnys it Could work
The fact that a decade after the fact the leaker is still to much of a coward to take responsibility for his own actions shows he knows he is in the wrong. If he's willing to say it was due to poor work conditions, what was the plan after the leak? How did illegally leaking information help your life, or the lives of your coworkers? I'm sure there's an element of moral responsibility to sources, but reporting the truth is about holding people accountable for their actions.
Yeah like literally nothing changed. It's not like the person had no examples of 'how it's done'. You just tell Kotaku or whatever outlet willing to listen details about the working conditions of the workplace and how bad it is and they do the rest for you. Blowing up one of the rare times Nintendo actually CONTACTS you to contract and fund your game to stick it to management was dumb as hell. Nothing got better, people got laid off and it's horribly crippled the studio since. Insane.
In the end, it was probably for the best. An original game like Splatoon doesn't get made by a studio with years of experience making shooters, it gets made by people who are inexperienced. Their inexperience means they're more open to trying concepts that would never be explored in a traditional shooter.
Yeah I see what you mean. It even applies to real life. Because if your stuck doing something one way, how will you ever come up with a new path? You’ll might end up repeating the same thing. It takes the less knowledgeable.
This is why leakers are the worst. They'll do it for their own selfish reasons and disregard how it could potentially affect others who have nothing to do with it. I've never seen a case where someone had a just reason to leak something.
TDA WatrMelon - I can't say that, since I don't know the guy and have no right to judge, but he could be the biggest sweetheart in the world for all I care. Leaking something while knowing you could take innocent employees down with you, or in other cases, datamining and ruining a game's huge surprise because you were too impatient to wait, still isn't a good thing.
Igorowan Maybe because no one has shed light on it yet? For all we know, a random leak back in 2014 revealed some crazy day that would be coming out today, but never happened.
Anthonï _ Hey, I found you elsewhere! Despite the fact that I haven't played either Splatoon game, the concept seems interesting enough for me to follow.
Give it a slight touch of steampunk, design everything around water, make it singleplayer first as well as first person. That would be different enough.
it seems it was more focused on single player and did not feature the "ink covering" mechanic... this and splatoon are pretty much completely different...
I like how despite the numerous arguments and inconsolable factions in gaming culture, almost everyone agrees leaks are terrible and nobody approves of leakers even if they give good information.
I’ve noticed that a lot of people are saying leaks are bad, but will get excited over Smash Ultimate leaks and some will even start fake leaks and rumors themselves
Here is the thing. People can get excited over leaks and still condemn it. There are very few times a leak is warranted and to do so out of a sense of misplaced justice is wrong.
I guess what I mean is that I get excited over leaks too, but I think a lot of people don’t understand what can happen if a major leak gets out. I think people want attention nowadays and don’t realize that leaking stuff can lead to MAJOR consequences, like an entire game getting cancelled and the loss of a bunch of jobs.
Untrue, leakers of old game prototypes and content are awesome for doing a service to fans and helping history preservation. They don't hurt the companies or employees since it's old stuff pertaining old games.
Liam, I like your content and stuff, but I know you're quite big in the leaks business. Don't you feel that sometimes leaking is a harmful thing to do?
As much as it sucks that so many people suffered (and are still suffering) because of one spiteful guy, I have to agree with the other guy quoted towards the end. High Voltage isn't exactly a standout studio, and The Conduit probably wouldn't even have been recognized if not for the novelty of it being on the Wii; there is no way whatever they would have made could have measured up to what Splatoon ended up being.
Yeah but look up the story behind Retro Studios. Literal stripper parties and shitty concept demos. Then Nintendo came in and cracked their whips and we got Metroid fuckin Prime, a masterpiece.
I feel sorry for what happened to the company due to the leak incident, but at the same time, I can't help but be happy because we may have gotten a generic water gun shooter instead of the all-ink-one Splatoon had the project gone through (not assuming that the robot game is going to turn out bad, but I believe it would just be another shooter with a more unique setting). If that robot game gets made and sells well, Nintendo would stick to that setting. On the other hand, if it fails, Nintendo may be afraid to try to revive the idea again. Either way, I'd say there's a very high chance that Splatoon will never come to be if that robot game gets made.
So cool when you guys personally interview people. It means youre not just relying on a google search to get your information and that dedication really shines through in your videos.
I'm going to be honest, i typically don't enjoy didyouknowgaming's videos since they just tend to be lists of pretty commonly known info, but this was a really interesting video about a legitimately obscure topic and you guys did actual investigative work. Please do more content like this.
Hi Jabber. I am the creator of this video and the Game History Secrets series. I'm glad that you liked this video. All of my content is in this vein. If you liked it, please check out more of the videos on the playlists on my channel.
This is a real eye opener for me. As much as I love Splatoon, it really is a shame that such a humble studio like High Voltage lost an opportunity like this. It's especially depressing since they haven't released anything that original since 2011 besides some VR and mobile stuff.
I wish that leakers would realize how much damage they can do to a company in their quest for self-satisfaction. One internal leaker at High Voltage ruined the ENTIRE studio.
The controls in that FPS reminded me of Golden Eye 007 and Perfect Dark, so much nostalgia suddenly flowed back. Those two games were center of my childhood and the wonder of exploring the levels in attempt to finding new gadgets appealed to me.
Let this be a lesson to anyone contracted to work on potentially cool super-secret projects: Shush! And a lesson to anyone wanting to tank a project: Yeah, this is unfortunately a pretty good way to do that.
That robot game looks way more appealing than Splatoon to me. It would have been amazing to see it finished and I got excited throughout the whole video until I forgot it was discussing a cancelled video game. It may have even helped the Wii U better since those games were really starting to peak around that time. Whether or not it could have saved it is unknown, but it may have sold just a few million more since it's essentially a Splatoon--esque game coming a few years earlier. Besides the concept itself, people were surprised about a Nintendo shooting game, so it may have done pretty well. I would say I want it to resurface someday, but there is just no way it could do well now with Splatoon existing. But, Nintendo has made multiple platformers before, so I do not see any reason why they could not make more shooter games. And this robot game should really be salvaged for the future. Funny that a game about water was ruined by leaks. These guys would have been fun to play in Super Smash Bros.
Knowing what I do about many of the terrible working conditions in the game industry, I'm gonna side with the employee. I think the fact none of their peers ratted them out probably says a lot more about the situation than anything else, consider that it was likely a sentiment not held by just one dude if the working conditions really were poor. Consider also that companies have many layers, and whoever nintendo spoke to was probably insulated from the lower ones by a department manager, and a department manager who sees their workers struggle with bad working conditions every day is likely not gonna say shit when his boss comes knocking and demands he throw someone under the bus, and their boss probably doesn't know the department well enough to start properly snooping. This is especially worth considering if someone had held erasing evidence. And no, you can't just go "get another job", it's not that simple with careers where you actually have to WORK for a position. Moving companies can often mean moving long distances from home, or taking a job with significantly less pay, or losing your company position and having to climb back up. That can take years, by the way, and usually you need to have work lined up ahead of time before jumping ship. These are things you won't see advertised randomly because even suggesting you're unhappy with your working conditions in public spaces is gonna risk your career, but know that a lot of voiceless little people suffer for the plastic disks we waste hours of our lives on in ways they shouldn't have to because this industry is rotten to the core and way too many entitled consumers would rather blame the little guys when shit goes tits up instead of direct their anger at the top players like Dear Old Nintendo.
This Liam guy, narrating this episode... Isn't he the guy that leaked the Mario + Rabbids game? The same leak that got the Ubisoft developers extremely sad and uncouraged?
*Turd Soda* No it isn't because it's not the same kind of leak. Also, this information is not less likely to leak just because it's a game about water.
I'm kinda glad the project didn't work out, Splatoon is my FAVORITE game, and I don't like the idea of robots as much as squidkids, but it is pretty cool to learn about what could have been.
We had also a paint based shooter concept at Disney to make a game for everyone but we stopped it because it did not go anywhere. Just not good enough, the regular more guns, more types of liquid crap that anyone can list while sitting in the toilets for 10 minutes. The real breakthrough is from Nintendo. A typical horizontal solutions, something that solves many many problems all at once. Diving into the paint to hide, recharge, go faster, climb walls, go under fences and so on. This is real genius. Once they got that, they develop characters to fit the gameplay, 'humans' to 'squids', not the other way around. They are just so f...g good.
I'm currently playing Conduit 2 and love it and it's world and the effort behind it. I'm really sad that, the end of this project was also the death of any Conduit 3. Also screw the head of the company too for treating employees badly
it’s hard to say it cause yeah its really sad that a company so excited to make a big project like that got shut down because of 1 rat bastard. but on the other hand let’s be honest with ourselves Splatoon is probably better than what they were gonna make
The ironic thing about this whole leak situation is that, had the article not been pulled, the leak probably wouldn't have been believed until after the game's reveal. Having the article taken down likely made a lot more people suspicious.
Considering the utter failure of the Wii U, I wonder if this leak canceling their project and moving them away from Nintendo and onto Xbox and PlayStation wasn't a blessing in disguise. Doesn't sound like they feel that way though.
I know this is important video game trivia but I feel like you shouldn't have posted this. You've said that you managed to identify the source of the leak and now that this story is relevant again, it could start a witch hunt.
gamephreak5 See, this is exactly the kind of thing they're talking about. The internet has such a unhealthy, self-righteous culture. Don't get me wrong, if someone's done something bad they deserve punishment for it. But people are so willing to destroying a person's entire life nowadays over any little thing in a stupid, justice-seeking witch-hunt. Particularly with something that happened so long ago, just shut up and leave it, and the "culprit", be.
The leaker single handedly disrupted/destroyed the lives of dozens of his fellow co-workers over a personal issue he had with upper management; I wouldn't consider that level of malevolent behavior as some minor transgression. Video game enthusiasts, game studios and publishers should relish the opportunity to learn the identity of these types of people because all they do is cause chaos, destroy once in a lifetime opportunities, and worst of all, ROB CONSUMERS of potentially great experiences.
There is no threat of the leaker's identity being revealed. They don't even work at High Voltage anymore and High Voltage has no reason to pursue them.
ConnorEatsPants say if Nintendo were to have bought the Banjo and Conker IP’s and the Gravity Rush IP’s alongside Project Siren (The Developers of Gravity Rush) and it got leaked. Would the leaker get believed?
I mean... Yeah some peep almost took down an entire studio out of anger for their working conditions, but working conditions are no matter to just brush off. It's downright horrible that it backfired so greatly, but I can't really be mad at them for what they tried to do.
Sure but do we know what the working condition issues were? Especially when you're a smaller company about to work with Nintendo with a new IP, if it worked out well all their problems could have been solved. Hypothetically of course, like I said I don't know what the problems actually were.
I guess it just depends where the issues were coming from. If it was a result of being a small company that's been struggling then sticking it out to get your big break working with Nintendo should have fixed that. If it's an issue with how the place is ran...even that could very well change with success but they could just talk about it probably.
If they had already tried talking about it , I think High Voltage would have been able to figure out who the leaker was. If he honestly though he was in the right because he exhausted all his options I don't think he would remain anon years after the fact.
I’m really glad Splatoon became what it is today but I think this could have been really cool too. Splatoon probably is better though, a whole lot cuter.
What the heck are you even talking about? "It's the age of the internet Nintendo, get with the times and accept that people leak stuff online"? Is that we're you're getting at here? Because if so that's stupid. No company likes their stuff leaking, even nowadays. Just because something's easy to do nowadays, it doesn't mean you need to lay down and accept it. Besides this happened over 10 years ago.
I wonder what that other robot game could’ve been like. Splatoon is one of my favorite game franchises now and it’s so addicting, I’ve spent 100+ hours on both games so I can’t imagine what it would be like without Splatoon....
0:11 Wait, what? How was the Wii U the experiment of two screen gaming? The Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS came before! And we had LAN god knows how far before that...
The DS and 3DS is two screens to yourself and nobody else. The Wii U gave one player a personal screen/controller and left others to utilize a bigger TV screen. It was an experimentation in asymmetrical gameplay, though hardly the first and only time they did such a thing (various 1v3 Mario Party minigames come to mind).
Leaks were made, a project was cancelled, and in turn, we got an awesome game called Splatoon (which I haven't actually played yet..) But there's a lesson to be learned here, and that is to not leak development stuffs if you don't want a potential great game/sequel/game mode (i.e Smash 4 story mode) to be cancelled
No that's batshit insane, if you have a problem with a company bring up your complaints, don't extort the company threatening not just higher up but also your co-workers. The leaker was an asshole.
Sure, if you have unsatisfactory working conditions, instead of acting like a normal human being and bringing up your misgivings with your work environment to superiors, sabotage their entire business and by extension the livelihoods of all your peers, friends, and co-workers :))))))
Mario is a plumber. That is why nintendo doesn't tolerate any leaks at all.
There is no other explanation
Mario's not a plumber anymore, was confirmed by Nintendo after Odyssey came out.
They've since gone back on the "not a plumber" thing, with Mario's official Nintendo bio once again listing his profession as "plumber."
The clever hilarity of this comment is diluted by the ridiculous replies of people who are trying to sound smart.
Everyone here has ruined the joke
Optical He Is A Plumber Because Pipes Are Still A Thing In Odyssey
Amazing that basically one disgruntled employee ruined an entire studio, a studio that didn't want to single out anyone and instead took the bullet at the time. Cool.
SlackerKite this is the worst part. They claim that they wouldn't fire the employee and didn't want to call them out yet the employee harmed the company so much. That's basically a parasite mentality. It would have been better if they had discribed their perceived mistreatment in detail but it's probably a higher expected check or something minor. This is why some people are "over qualified". You might be great but if you're prone to being disgruntled because what you think you're worth and sabotage the company then you're a liability and not worth the experience you bring.
Why's the employee have to to be "disgruntled"? As I heard it was just an employee.
because the supposed reason they leaked was because of unfavorable working conditions at the time.
No dude, the problem is the self-righteous asshole who knows full well the damage he could do to the company and to his co-workers careers and does it anyway out of spite. If he was in any way decent or professional he should of approached his bosses and talked to them about the conditions or gathered other co-workers who felt the same to get some backing - the dude's a nutsack.
I really don't understand the disgruntled employee. he was mad at them because they treated him bad or whatever but instead of talking to a journalist about the bad treatment he just goes anonomously talk about the game they're making
Wow, one person almost took down an entire studio just out of spite.
Spite is stupid
WOOMY!
Blacktommer35 If only Kojima did that
Kenetic Kups the thing is, konami did it for him (in the gaming scene). Even if he tried to pull something off their massive PACHINKO division would've remained unscathed. Kojima went with the wise choice and took his entire studio with him to another company.
What a selfish prick! I don't know what his working conditions were, but if you're irritated with them quit your damn job... douchebag endangered everyone else's jobs and tanked the company.
Seriously, if you want to just out this dude just this once I won't blame you lol
A bit ironic that a game revolving around shooting water was cancelled due to leaks
*People Person* Not really. A game about shooting water does not make the information about it less likely to leak.
JAM229 woooosh
JAM229 B O Y
TheMindOfThomas No he's right, it's not ironic. Most people think irony (specifically situational irony) is something that is unexpected, surprising, coincidental, hypocritical, contradictory, or even fitting, but aren't the correct definitions. The definition is: an incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result. The example that OP made doesn't fit this definition at all. So many people have trouble with this word but try to act like they know to try to seem intelligent.
@@JohnCharlesMartinIII appreciate the lecture mr english major
I don't know what this leaker went through in the company but ruining the livelihoods of dozens that had likely nothing to do with it was irresponsible, immature and pathetic.
You are absolute right.
I have such A-Holes in my Company, they walking to the Doctor and staying Home, saying they want to hurt the Company.
But others have to do their Jobs, if they do not, because they stay at Home.
The same Level of irresponsible Egoism.
Azuris190 your... your random capitalization makes me uncomfortable
It's not random though. All the nouns are capitalized, like in German for example.
If they had leaked the working conditions they found objectionable, I'd have sympathy. But this was just a "screw you" move.
"If they had leaked the working conditions they found objectionable"
Literally nothing would be done about that whatsoever, this happens all the time and companies ignore it 99% of the time.
The dude did the only thing that would've changed things which was hurt their bottom line.
So basically, one person's spitefulness led to most of a studio getting fired?
Yes.
The studio signs a contract that they don't leak anything
Ever hear the phrase "loose lips sink ships"? That's what this situation became.
kildaver I bet nobody since the 80s has heard of it.
Crazy to know the full story about this now after seeing that GoNintendo article from YEARS ago.
Roger! Love your content man!
Thanks for providing me so much entertainment throughout the years :)
all this info came like a surprise to me 😂😂😂
Damn, no wonder Nintendo's so tight-lipped. They'll literally cancel games if you leak something.
Well, yeah, it's why the Hype trains for so many of their games go so well. Smash bros games always have their fans excited beyond means during the lead-up tot heir games, and the pokemon fanbase clamors over a new entry to the main series. Hype is a very delicate thing that NEEDS to be managed, like a High Pressure water line, these "leaks" hinder the ability to handle the pressure effectively, leading to a trickle or a torrent that can damage something, A game just falls off the radar if too low, but if too high it becomes No Man's Sky, or Duke Nukem Forever.
lightningbro this was a beautiful metaphorical way of explaining why leaks are dangerous
i hope they cancel smash ultimate now
I think it depends on what is leaked, but the problem is hype like lightningbro mentioned. It's a blessing and a curse. While hype is good for publicity, the problem is when expectations are set too high as a result. Nintendo wants to carefully show things so that it's in a more controlled environment. Otherwise it could simply be too volatile.
i mean leakers are probably the reason why sakurai feels the need to reveal every little detail of the new smash, which actually sucks.
I really like the extensive research seen in this video. Most of the time it's secondary, even tertiary sources; sometimes even incorrect. You went out your way to uncover secrets that have never been published before. Keep up the good work!
man that really sucks. while its interesting to see that this might have been the reason splatoon was created in the first place, its just sucks to see this company lose its big potential project just due to one person leaking some details. that one person literally screwed over a lot of people in that company. It's a shame because I would have loved to see how this concept could have been fleshed out because the world already started to sound pretty great. I am glad though that all of those leaks back in 2011 are finally fully explained, cause I remember when those details first surfaced.
Justice for Unnamed Robot Shooter!
WHY DONT WE MAKE IT
Cubby Master will if you Could get in some Contact to some Good indi Programmers that are good in First Party Shooters & 3rd Party Platforms Because if that happens then I can definitely get some people for the soundtrack. I can also help with the Concept art needed to make the Models
To start with I think the Main Character would be Robo-Bun, a small Cute Bunny Robot who's Mission is to save his brainwashed Pals from the Evil virus A.I Coretex who acts as mother Brain for most Robotics
If in Split screen Mutiplayer I could see
Ralphie the Raccoon P2
Cathy the Cat P3
Protocon P4
Of Worlds
World 1 Would be like Concept Art with the Boss being Wesley Riding a Fish Bot
Word 5: A Junkyard, Ya I mean the one with Gears and Dead or rather Undead Autos and Robos
World 6: a Clock Tower with Jazz Music and lots of Golden Gears (wait should Golden gears be a Collective item?
World 7: The Core, in short your in Coretex's Digital World and it's here where we Finally Stop him.
For gamer it isn't much of loss, splatoon was turn out better than any concepts that HV has churned out.
You can never know that though. Keep in mind that early concept of Splatoon started out with Rabbits. A lot of things can change in a 3-4 year development cycle. The big takeaway is that it's great that we have Splatoon but it's shitty that some ass clown went and blew a whole studio out of the water and jeopardized peoples' livelihoods over a leak.
The early concepts are interesting and robots wasn't a bad idea. who knows what this IP could of been under Nintendo's guidance. Especially when it wasn't considered to be multiplayer.
It really is heart breaking for me that HighVoltage could've worked with Nintendo similar to how Rare did back in the day. HighVoltage really could've revolutionized the way aiming with a gun worked in video games. Seriously. The controls for the conduit games were stellar. Almost better than main stream titles like Halo and Call of Duty to some degree.
The Halo games never had motion controls, so of course the Conduit games controlled better; but yeah it really is a highly underrated duology (especially the second game), and it's a real shame that the story will always end on that massive cliffhanger.
So THAT'S why Inklings die when falling into water...
And water gets rid of paint so :/
Because they're robots?
I came here to see if someone else noticed that too. I'm glad I wasn't the only one.
Robert Poole no
Inkling/ octolings CAN be in water but there weakness is colored ink
This honestly makes me so sad, everything with this from the Water-centric world design, to Megaman inspired characters looks SO good. Sad to see that, at bare minimum, this incarnation of the idea will never flourish.
Someone could make a spiritual successor.
I hope, it looks gorgeous.
It had promise for sure.
lightningbro well Honesty I'm Collecting Failed Projects like these to make in the Future. I feel if the Robots were Chibi Animals like Cats and Bunnys it Could work
Hah, we're of like minds then. I feel it would do well even on it's own. so as those commercials go "Porque no las dos?" (Why not both?)
The fact that a decade after the fact the leaker is still to much of a coward to take responsibility for his own actions shows he knows he is in the wrong. If he's willing to say it was due to poor work conditions, what was the plan after the leak? How did illegally leaking information help your life, or the lives of your coworkers? I'm sure there's an element of moral responsibility to sources, but reporting the truth is about holding people accountable for their actions.
Yeah like literally nothing changed. It's not like the person had no examples of 'how it's done'. You just tell Kotaku or whatever outlet willing to listen details about the working conditions of the workplace and how bad it is and they do the rest for you. Blowing up one of the rare times Nintendo actually CONTACTS you to contract and fund your game to stick it to management was dumb as hell.
Nothing got better, people got laid off and it's horribly crippled the studio since. Insane.
In the end, it was probably for the best. An original game like Splatoon doesn't get made by a studio with years of experience making shooters, it gets made by people who are inexperienced. Their inexperience means they're more open to trying concepts that would never be explored in a traditional shooter.
Yeah I see what you mean. It even applies to real life. Because if your stuck doing something one way, how will you ever come up with a new path? You’ll might end up repeating the same thing. It takes the less knowledgeable.
The reason there was no story mode in smash 4 was supposdly becuse sakurai was still butthurt about the leaks on supspace mode
That's the excuse he said. Whether it's true or false, that's pretty stupid of Sakurai-- just for different reasons.
This is why leakers are the worst. They'll do it for their own selfish reasons and disregard how it could potentially affect others who have nothing to do with it. I've never seen a case where someone had a just reason to leak something.
Umeko The person who narrated this episode is a well known leaker. LUL
That's great and all but it doesn't change anything.
But what of someone who leaks evidence of horrible mismanagement or overworked developer conditions?
Umeko so liam is selfish?
TDA WatrMelon - I can't say that, since I don't know the guy and have no right to judge, but he could be the biggest sweetheart in the world for all I care. Leaking something while knowing you could take innocent employees down with you, or in other cases, datamining and ruining a game's huge surprise because you were too impatient to wait, still isn't a good thing.
That leaker has caused so much trouble, I feel pity for High Voltage. :'(
They made some cool games, but if they were treating their employees like dogshit, I can't feel too much sympathy.
Dude I want this game, even if it's just singleplayer, robots playing with waterguns, you kidding ?
This is cool and all, but I'm glad we got Splatoon instead.
I would've wanted the robot idea more
I would have wanted both, unrealistic as it may be.
@@Arkatox true
That zoom transition at 2:43 though :)
Falconbox ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Buut zoom :3
J
The one time the leak has malicious intent, it actually does damage to the ones that allowed it to happen.
Igorowan I don't think this is the only time someone has sabotaged projects by leaking information.
Well, I can't think of another instance of "Project failed to get into production because of leaks".
Igorowan Maybe because no one has shed light on it yet? For all we know, a random leak back in 2014 revealed some crazy day that would be coming out today, but never happened.
Wow... What a wasted opportunity for high voltage...
Joserics well i sure as hell would not have bought their game splatoon >>>>
Honestly I feel.like this concept would still work, it's different enough from Splatoon
Anthonï _ I would love to play it
Anthonï _ Hey, I found you elsewhere! Despite the fact that I haven't played either Splatoon game, the concept seems interesting enough for me to follow.
Anthonï _ i wouldnt buy it tho splatoon is better
Give it a slight touch of steampunk, design everything around water, make it singleplayer first as well as first person. That would be different enough.
it seems it was more focused on single player and did not feature the "ink covering" mechanic...
this and splatoon are pretty much completely different...
I like how despite the numerous arguments and inconsolable factions in gaming culture, almost everyone agrees leaks are terrible and nobody approves of leakers even if they give good information.
I’ve noticed that a lot of people are saying leaks are bad, but will get excited over Smash Ultimate leaks and some will even start fake leaks and rumors themselves
Here is the thing. People can get excited over leaks and still condemn it. There are very few times a leak is warranted and to do so out of a sense of misplaced justice is wrong.
I guess what I mean is that I get excited over leaks too, but I think a lot of people don’t understand what can happen if a major leak gets out. I think people want attention nowadays and don’t realize that leaking stuff can lead to MAJOR consequences, like an entire game getting cancelled and the loss of a bunch of jobs.
Untrue, leakers of old game prototypes and content are awesome for doing a service to fans and helping history preservation. They don't hurt the companies or employees since it's old stuff pertaining old games.
Liam, I like your content and stuff, but I know you're quite big in the leaks business. Don't you feel that sometimes leaking is a harmful thing to do?
As much as it sucks that so many people suffered (and are still suffering) because of one spiteful guy, I have to agree with the other guy quoted towards the end. High Voltage isn't exactly a standout studio, and The Conduit probably wouldn't even have been recognized if not for the novelty of it being on the Wii; there is no way whatever they would have made could have measured up to what Splatoon ended up being.
Yeah but look up the story behind Retro Studios. Literal stripper parties and shitty concept demos. Then Nintendo came in and cracked their whips and we got Metroid fuckin Prime, a masterpiece.
No Woomys were harmed in the making of this video
WOOMY!
"Wommy"
NGYES~!
NGYESH!!!
No, but your english was hurt during the making of this comment ;-;
I feel sorry for what happened to the company due to the leak incident, but at the same time, I can't help but be happy because we may have gotten a generic water gun shooter instead of the all-ink-one Splatoon had the project gone through (not assuming that the robot game is going to turn out bad, but I believe it would just be another shooter with a more unique setting).
If that robot game gets made and sells well, Nintendo would stick to that setting. On the other hand, if it fails, Nintendo may be afraid to try to revive the idea again. Either way, I'd say there's a very high chance that Splatoon will never come to be if that robot game gets made.
So cool when you guys personally interview people. It means youre not just relying on a google search to get your information and that dedication really shines through in your videos.
Hi. I made this video and all of my videos are like this.
I'm going to be honest, i typically don't enjoy didyouknowgaming's videos since they just tend to be lists of pretty commonly known info, but this was a really interesting video about a legitimately obscure topic and you guys did actual investigative work. Please do more content like this.
Hi Jabber. I am the creator of this video and the Game History Secrets series. I'm glad that you liked this video. All of my content is in this vein. If you liked it, please check out more of the videos on the playlists on my channel.
This is a real eye opener for me. As much as I love Splatoon, it really is a shame that such a humble studio like High Voltage lost an opportunity like this. It's especially depressing since they haven't released anything that original since 2011 besides some VR and mobile stuff.
couldn't be happier regardless
why
I wish that leakers would realize how much damage they can do to a company in their quest for self-satisfaction. One internal leaker at High Voltage ruined the ENTIRE studio.
1:03 I'm still waiting for that particular Zelda game to become a reality.
Me too... There's so much Breath of the Wild does that makes it feel like it's not even a Zelda game. More like Skyrim.
The controls in that FPS reminded me of Golden Eye 007 and Perfect Dark, so much nostalgia suddenly flowed back. Those two games were center of my childhood and the wonder of exploring the levels in attempt to finding new gadgets appealed to me.
Let this be a lesson to anyone contracted to work on potentially cool super-secret projects: Shush!
And a lesson to anyone wanting to tank a project: Yeah, this is unfortunately a pretty good way to do that.
That robot game looks way more appealing than Splatoon to me. It would have been amazing to see it finished and I got excited throughout the whole video until I forgot it was discussing a cancelled video game. It may have even helped the Wii U better since those games were really starting to peak around that time. Whether or not it could have saved it is unknown, but it may have sold just a few million more since it's essentially a Splatoon--esque game coming a few years earlier. Besides the concept itself, people were surprised about a Nintendo shooting game, so it may have done pretty well.
I would say I want it to resurface someday, but there is just no way it could do well now with Splatoon existing. But, Nintendo has made multiple platformers before, so I do not see any reason why they could not make more shooter games. And this robot game should really be salvaged for the future. Funny that a game about water was ruined by leaks.
These guys would have been fun to play in Super Smash Bros.
I hope whoever did the leak gets exposed and is never trusted in the industry again.
Jamberite even better if high voltage sues for the damages he caused
Hell yeah.
But at least this concept was able to live on in the masterpiece Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash
Tofu
Terfer
Turf War
*awoken*
It’s just pure coincidence
Tofu sounds like what you'd get trying to translate the sounds into japanese because language is complicated.
Knowing what I do about many of the terrible working conditions in the game industry, I'm gonna side with the employee. I think the fact none of their peers ratted them out probably says a lot more about the situation than anything else, consider that it was likely a sentiment not held by just one dude if the working conditions really were poor. Consider also that companies have many layers, and whoever nintendo spoke to was probably insulated from the lower ones by a department manager, and a department manager who sees their workers struggle with bad working conditions every day is likely not gonna say shit when his boss comes knocking and demands he throw someone under the bus, and their boss probably doesn't know the department well enough to start properly snooping. This is especially worth considering if someone had held erasing evidence.
And no, you can't just go "get another job", it's not that simple with careers where you actually have to WORK for a position. Moving companies can often mean moving long distances from home, or taking a job with significantly less pay, or losing your company position and having to climb back up. That can take years, by the way, and usually you need to have work lined up ahead of time before jumping ship. These are things you won't see advertised randomly because even suggesting you're unhappy with your working conditions in public spaces is gonna risk your career, but know that a lot of voiceless little people suffer for the plastic disks we waste hours of our lives on in ways they shouldn't have to because this industry is rotten to the core and way too many entitled consumers would rather blame the little guys when shit goes tits up instead of direct their anger at the top players like Dear Old Nintendo.
this is such a good series idea i'm looking forward to more of this so so much
Pretty fucking ironic getting Liam to narrate when he leaked Mario + Rabbids? The team behind it said they feared the worst when they heard the leaks.
Thank god it failed. There wasn't much rule 34 material with those robots...
N00B's Stuff The squids are 14...
Thats what you think...!
Pink Mushroom no really, look it up. (How old are the inklings in splatoon)
Severe Oofington
Shhhhhhh... It's all legal in Japan...
My comment was actually a reply to N00B's comment lol.
Your comment wasn't there yet by then.
I like the idea of a water gun game where you have to fry robot circuits, but Splatoon is better
Your whole intro is based around a track from earthbound. Nice.
9:48 Geez I know leaks kind of suck but discontinuing a project over it?
This Liam guy, narrating this episode... Isn't he the guy that leaked the Mario + Rabbids game?
The same leak that got the Ubisoft developers extremely sad and uncouraged?
Mario + Rabbids was leaked by Ubisoft employees. I only wrote about those leaks. Pretty significant difference.
The Conduit was a really fun game back in the Wii days!
Ironic a game about water was ruined by leaks...
*Turd Soda* No it isn't because it's not the same kind of leak. Also, this information is not less likely to leak just because it's a game about water.
JAM229 🤦🏾♂️
@@1JAM229 🤦♀️
JAM229 that joke went so over your head ya know
@@1JAM229 /r/wooosh
I'm kinda glad the project didn't work out, Splatoon is my FAVORITE game, and I don't like the idea of robots as much as squidkids, but it is pretty cool to learn about what could have been.
We got our Woomy and Veemo so in the end it's all good.
We had also a paint based shooter concept at Disney to make a game for everyone but we stopped it because it did not go anywhere. Just not good enough, the regular more guns, more types of liquid crap that anyone can list while sitting in the toilets for 10 minutes. The real breakthrough is from Nintendo. A typical horizontal solutions, something that solves many many problems all at once. Diving into the paint to hide, recharge, go faster, climb walls, go under fences and so on. This is real genius. Once they got that, they develop characters to fit the gameplay, 'humans' to 'squids', not the other way around. They are just so f...g good.
It is real shame they discontinued this.
Was it that bad for Nintendo? If it were
me I’d just continue since no one cared
It wasn’t until much later that we got our true water-gun third person shooter, via Senran Kagura.
Leaks are bad, mmkay?
mmmmmmmkaaaaay?
Infinitely glad that this happened. Splatoon is too good.
It's crazy how mistakes can ultimately lead to the reason for something being created!
How is intentionally leaking a game with malicious intent a mistake?
Aesir, God of Chaos Because it shouldn't have happened.
HOLY.... this is the best and most interesting video this channel has ever made. Thanks.
Woomy
N G Y E S ~ !
Moan
Veemo
Hi
Woomy
Vemo
Woomy
Vemo
Woomy
Vemo
NGYES
I'm currently playing Conduit 2 and love it and it's world and the effort behind it. I'm really sad that, the end of this project was also the death of any Conduit 3. Also screw the head of the company too for treating employees badly
Good, because i prefer the cute squid and octo girls
BASED
Shirokuro Max Every other comment is talking shit about the person who leaked the game and then we have you lol
I definitely agree with you tho
it’s hard to say it cause yeah its really sad that a company so excited to make a big project like that got shut down because of 1 rat bastard. but on the other hand let’s be honest with ourselves Splatoon is probably better than what they were gonna make
Oh...I get it...you're a racist....against robots...robotlivesmatter...
Shirokuro Max Why you no like Samonaids
The ironic thing about this whole leak situation is that, had the article not been pulled, the leak probably wouldn't have been believed until after the game's reveal. Having the article taken down likely made a lot more people suspicious.
Damn, imagine if we jad robots instead of squid waifus
I really hope the High Voltage people are doing well now that it's been a decade since that leak.
That one Person is an absolute Egoist.
Leaking something and bringing the every Job that is behind the Company into Danger.
Fantastic work as always Liam!! :D
Considering the utter failure of the Wii U, I wonder if this leak canceling their project and moving them away from Nintendo and onto Xbox and PlayStation wasn't a blessing in disguise. Doesn't sound like they feel that way though.
I don't think you know what "utter failure" is...
You always know a dumb Wii U hater when you hear one...
A game that takes place in DC and has an accurately depicted DC metro, I'm sold.
Lol it's the complete opposite of splatoon
The lesson here is simple;
*DON'T PICK ON THE WATER-BOY* (Pun unintended.)
I know this is important video game trivia but I feel like you shouldn't have posted this. You've said that you managed to identify the source of the leak and now that this story is relevant again, it could start a witch hunt.
So what? Let the hunt begin and let the leaker finally be punished! Screw 'im!
I doubt anyone will find the identity of the leaker.
gamephreak5 See, this is exactly the kind of thing they're talking about. The internet has such a unhealthy, self-righteous culture. Don't get me wrong, if someone's done something bad they deserve punishment for it. But people are so willing to destroying a person's entire life nowadays over any little thing in a stupid, justice-seeking witch-hunt. Particularly with something that happened so long ago, just shut up and leave it, and the "culprit", be.
The leaker single handedly disrupted/destroyed the lives of dozens of his fellow co-workers over a personal issue he had with upper management; I wouldn't consider that level of malevolent behavior as some minor transgression. Video game enthusiasts, game studios and publishers should relish the opportunity to learn the identity of these types of people because all they do is cause chaos, destroy once in a lifetime opportunities, and worst of all, ROB CONSUMERS of potentially great experiences.
There is no threat of the leaker's identity being revealed. They don't even work at High Voltage anymore and High Voltage has no reason to pursue them.
So basically an internal employee who didn't know how to keep their mouth shut ruined it for everyone.
Damn that really sucks.
Emperor Palpatine: *Ironic*
ConnorEatsPants say if Nintendo were to have bought the Banjo and Conker IP’s and the Gravity Rush IP’s alongside Project Siren (The Developers of Gravity Rush) and it got leaked. Would the leaker get believed?
They should put this game on kickstarter.
Save a job, don't leak stuff.
Pazzo, That Fool - Unless it's government/corporate corruption. ;)
Okay but for that water gun game, I imagine like a robot covered in waterproof bandaids,, it’s rlly cute in my head
I mean... Yeah some peep almost took down an entire studio out of anger for their working conditions, but working conditions are no matter to just brush off. It's downright horrible that it backfired so greatly, but I can't really be mad at them for what they tried to do.
Sure but do we know what the working condition issues were? Especially when you're a smaller company about to work with Nintendo with a new IP, if it worked out well all their problems could have been solved. Hypothetically of course, like I said I don't know what the problems actually were.
I don't know either, but hoping for daddy Nintendo to just swoop in and fix all the problems was probably not a good strategy either.
I guess it just depends where the issues were coming from. If it was a result of being a small company that's been struggling then sticking it out to get your big break working with Nintendo should have fixed that. If it's an issue with how the place is ran...even that could very well change with success but they could just talk about it probably.
My guess is they probably had talked about it already. I mean, leaking sounds like already-tried-everything-else material.
If they had already tried talking about it , I think High Voltage would have been able to figure out who the leaker was. If he honestly though he was in the right because he exhausted all his options I don't think he would remain anon years after the fact.
I’m really glad Splatoon became what it is today but I think this could have been really cool too. Splatoon probably is better though, a whole lot cuter.
"Veemo"
Veemo!
N g w e h ~ !
While I agree that Splatoon's concept is much better, I would love to see some footage of this.
Ahem... “First Party Shooter”?
Mister Ambulance Driver more of a second party
Mister Ambulance Driver i think he meant first person shooter lol
The first person to ever shoot up a party to be specific.
No, I meant first party.
Yes. A shooter that is a first party project. Nothing wrong with that phrase at all.
Wait, at the end did you say that they have an *80% turnover rate*. As in employment turn over? Holy shit, no wonder they had a leaker.
Woomy Veemo woomy Veemo fire. Splats Splaaffy buck.
Great content there, really enjoyed to hear about the concept ideas to Splatoon.
Also yay for Tofu Footage!
Haven't seen it before 😂
I was the leaker. IT WAS ME! AND I'D DO IT ALL AGAIN TOO!
k
Are we supposed to belive you?
I _love_ Splatoon, but I admittedly wonder how the original idea would’ve turned out.
When nintendo continue living in the 50's
FortunaChan what do you mean?
What the heck are you even talking about? "It's the age of the internet Nintendo, get with the times and accept that people leak stuff online"? Is that we're you're getting at here? Because if so that's stupid. No company likes their stuff leaking, even nowadays. Just because something's easy to do nowadays, it doesn't mean you need to lay down and accept it. Besides this happened over 10 years ago.
This was a great video! Could you do a Do You Know Gaming on Scalebound. I would love to know more about what happened to that game.
I wonder what that other robot game could’ve been like. Splatoon is one of my favorite game franchises now and it’s so addicting, I’ve spent 100+ hours on both games so I can’t imagine what it would be like without Splatoon....
0:11 Wait, what?
How was the Wii U the experiment of two screen gaming?
The Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS came before!
And we had LAN god knows how far before that...
The DS and 3DS is two screens to yourself and nobody else. The Wii U gave one player a personal screen/controller and left others to utilize a bigger TV screen. It was an experimentation in asymmetrical gameplay, though hardly the first and only time they did such a thing (various 1v3 Mario Party minigames come to mind).
Don't forget the game and watch!!!
Well that kinda does give a bit of an answer as to why Nintendo didn't have a proper focus with the wii U going in.
He also said Splatoon was ONE of the best new IP to come from the Wii U... but let's face it. Splatoon is the ONLY good new IP to come from the Wii U.
wonderful 101
Leaks were made, a project was cancelled, and in turn, we got an awesome game called Splatoon (which I haven't actually played yet..)
But there's a lesson to be learned here, and that is to not leak development stuffs if you don't want a potential great game/sequel/game mode (i.e Smash 4 story mode) to be cancelled
why is the t-shirt of the one guy censored?
simito97 probably had a brand name or something?
They probably we're not sponsored or it was something inappropriate.
Part of the design. Just like all the blurry shirts in early 90s gangsta rap videos. :P
any logo will be censored in stuff like that
Can anyone tell what his shirt is?
Moral of the story: *_Leakers ruin everything._*
and that's why you should make workers happy
"worker"
The leak did more harm to the "workers" than the management ever could.
No that's batshit insane, if you have a problem with a company bring up your complaints, don't extort the company threatening not just higher up but also your co-workers. The leaker was an asshole.
Sure, if you have unsatisfactory working conditions, instead of acting like a normal human being and bringing up your misgivings with your work environment to superiors, sabotage their entire business and by extension the livelihoods of all your peers, friends, and co-workers :))))))
There's no accounting for whiny, cowardly, selfish, anonymous pricks. Was that enough names? I'm not so sure lol
In the word 'aesthetic' - the T is part of the TH combination as in 'think' or 'thanks'.
No one anywhere has ever declared it a rule otherwise.
Ooof
Waterguns will leak sometimes, but they're easy to refill
Thank god they created a game that was the base for real good hentai.
they're fucking kids, dude
And I'm a teen so it's fine. Also they aren't real.
I hate you.