A prominent member of the Call of Duty community who frequently leaked upcoming games has ‘retired’ following a threat of legal action by Activision.
TheGhostOfHope, who has successfully revealed information about unannounced Call of Duty games and content in the past, has posted a message on X saying he will no longer be doing so.
According to the insider, Activision threatened him with legal action if he continued to reveal unannounced information, so he’s decided to stop.
“Activision has legally demanded that I stop leaking and disseminating confidential information related to Call of Duty / Activision and I am complying with their demands,” he wrote.
“Still gonna stick around and chat about Official Call of Duty info and anything not related to leaks / confidential information. Cheers for these past few years.”
The official Call of Duty account on X then took the unusual step of discussing the insider’s retirement, stressing to another user that the legal action didn’t necessarily mean that any of his recent ‘leaks’ – including that this year’s entry will be called Modern Warfare 5 and will take place in North and South Korea – were accurate.
“So if Call of Duty is shutting TheGhostOfHope down… was he right about everything?” X user TDAWG asked.
“Nah,” the official Call of Duty account replied. “Even when leaks are wrong, they still hurt the people building the game and mess with player expectations.”
The news is the latest chapter in the endless battle between leakers and developers, with the latter feeling the former are spoiling their hard work and ruining the surprise for players.
Last month Hideki Kamiya – known for such series as Bayonetta, Okami and Viewtiful Joe but also the director on Resident Evil 2 – said anyone who spoiled the story of Resident Evil Requiem before it was released deserved to die “a thousand deaths”.
After leaks revealed Minecraft content in Sonic Racing CrossWorlds before it was officially announced, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka told VGC in an interview last year that leaks can not only ruin promotional plans for a game, but can also potentially ruin potential deals.
“This is just a general response, not anything specific to this game, but from a publishing perspective the publisher is always trying to control, plan, organise and present information and surprises to people to have the most fun, and get the most attention, [and] get people as excited as best as possible,” Iizuka told us (via a translator).
“And a lot of the people who leak this information are ruining that experience. They’re ruining the plans that people have put into place. In the event that you’re dealing with licensed content, sometimes that leak will destroy a deal, and now you can’t do some stuff because someone leaked something.”
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