Steam build of Death Stranding 2 leaks two days ahead of launch

Death Stranding 2 is now available to preload on Steam, but someone got more than a bundle of encrypted files early Tuesday—a pre-release version of Kojima Productions' delivery sim has leaked, and is now making the rounds on piracy websites two days before release.

According to a piracy-focused subreddit, the leak came via Steam, where unencrypted versions of the game files were seemingly made available by mistake. It's unclear how long the files were available, but apparently long enough for the 113GB game to be downloaded in full. While Steam does include its own DRM, it's relatively trivial to circumvent compared to Denuvo—which Death Stranding 2 doesn't use.

As a result, pirates are already able to download and play the game on PC ahead of its official release. Most of the comments in piracy circles so far seem to be focused on the available languages—the pre-release build, notably, is missing Russian voiceovers. Steam supports uploading separate language packages so players can download just the audio files they want to play with.

Anyone who pirates Death Stranding 2 will inevitably be locked out of the game's substantial online experience, which lets players share infrastructure like roads and bridges with one another.

The proper release isn't far off: Death Stranding 2 unlocks on March 19 at 7:30 am Pacific (2:30 pm GMT).