Steam 'Teraleak' Surfaces GTA 3 and Mafia 2 Prototypes

PC Gamer is reporting on a huge leak of Steam file groups called "depots" that were stored on Valve's servers between 2003 and 2013. A full list was posted to Reddit by user RefreshingCapybara, covering hundreds of games including trailers, demos, soundtracks, and more. RefreshingCapybara didn't undersell it either, writing: "Not to be hyperbolic, but this may be one of if not the biggest leaks to occur."

The list itself doesn't confirm what's inside each depot, but game preservation site Hidden Palace has already identified obtainable builds within several of them. Those include prototypes for Grand Theft Auto 3, Mafia 2, Spec Ops: The Line, and Sid Meier's Civilization V. On the Valve side, dataminers have pulled out a complete version of Portal 2's 2009 beta, plus prototypes for Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and files from Valve's cancelled puzzler F-STOP. Many of these builds were considered lost media before now, likely because Valve switched its content distribution pipeline from Steam2 to SteamPipe in 2013.

The origins of the leak aren't fully clear, but a readme file inside the archive includes the line "warm n good wishes to all hoarders who had stuff from this collection," suggesting multiple contributors pooled builds from various sources over time. The third-party content also raises serious legal questions. YouTuber and Valve specialist Tyler McVicker warned on social media: "That archive contains a significant amount of third-party content, meaning we are dealing with a dramatically more dangerous situation than if it were just some Valve builds." Given the sheer scale of the leak, it'll probably take a while before anyone has a clear picture of everything it contains.