Nothing must suck more for publishers than to have a big game snatched from right under their noses and have it leaked to the world before they get to make the big reveal. That's what happened with Modern Warfare 3 last weekend, but instead of whining about it, Activision managed to keep their their composure and go steadily with the flow.



In the words of CEO Eric Hirshberg, "Friday was a really interesting, a really kind of cool day." Okay, not exactly what we were expecting to hear given that massive blimp on their marketing parade.




"No one wakes up and thinks, I hope there's been a leak and our timing gets all messed up," Activision's boss expunds. "And while it's definitely not cool to setal other people's intellectual property, and while it's definitely cool to leak stuff that's not yours, there are ways that you can respond that actually turn the lemons into lemonade. And that's what we tried to do on Friday."

It was a huge concession for them to make, facing the fact that there's nothing they can do to take back the leaked material. "So what we did," Hirshberg narrated, "was we kind of took that exact conversation we were having in our conference room outside and had it publicly in social media.

Through our various channels, through Robert Bowling at IW, through Facebook and through our YouTube channel, we reached out to our fans and we said, 'Look, we didn't schedule this. This wasn't something we had planned. But everyone seems excited, so we're just going to roll with it. So here they are, a couple of assets that weren't scheduled to be out for another couple of weeks, so we're going to release 'em to you today.'"



The leak, while a definite setback in their promotions, may in the end have helped drum up the excitement of the fans for Modern Warfare 3. It probably came at a right time too, given how much flak the franchise is getting as of late. That is not to say, though, that they're a good thing.




"You don't want to spoil the surprises that the game has to offer. Leaks are not positive things, even though we might have used it as a way to amplify our initial viewership," Hirshberg said in conclusion. 




What can probably be comforting to know, however, is that the leaks weren't as accurate as people would think, so there should be plenty mor suprises in store for fans out there. 

Via [Joystiq]

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