{"id":836441,"date":"2026-09-04T17:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/836441\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T17:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:46:09","slug":"a-ratings-board-wouldnt-let-valve-release-a-trailer-it-leaked-it-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/836441\/","title":{"rendered":"A ratings board wouldn’t let Valve release a trailer. It “leaked” it instead."},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 2009, Ars wrote about<\/a> what was being reported as a leaked trailer<\/a> for the then-upcoming Left 4 Dead 2, saying the footage \u201clooks like it\u2019s straight from a high-gloss action movie.\u201d Today, we need to offer an important update to this crucial, 17-year-old story: The trailer \u201cleak\u201d was orchestrated by Valve itself.<\/p>\n

That news comes courtesy of former Valve writer Chet Faliszek, who said in a newly posted video<\/a> about cut lines in the game that \u201cfor Left 4 Dead 2 with the ESRB\u2026 we leaked our trailer ahead of time because they wouldn\u2019t let us release the trailer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faliszek is referring to the Entertainment Software Rating Board<\/a>, the self-regulating industry group that, since 1994, has offered sometimes questionable<\/a> age-appropriateness ratings for thousands of games submitted to its purview. While many smaller and\/or online-focused game makers skip out on getting those ratings these days, at the time, any publisher that wanted space on major retailers\u2019 shelves needed to submit to the ESRB\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n The \u201cleaked\u201d trailer that was apparently too hot for the ESRB.<\/p>\n

Those standards included restrictions on how companies could market their games as well. And looking back at the \u201cleaked\u201d Left 4 Dead 2 trailer<\/a> on YouTube, you could argue that it falls afoul of guidelines<\/a> that prohibited trailers with \u201cgraphic and\/or excessive depictions\u201d of \u201cviolence\u2026 the use of weapons\u2026 [and] blood and\/or gore\u201d as well as those with \u201ccrude and\/or offensive language.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Valve had some recent firsthand experience with the ESRB\u2019s sometimes onerous enforcement of its marketing standards. Earlier in 2009, the ESRB requested a change to a Left 4 Dead 2 promotional image<\/a> featuring a hand with three gnawed-off fingers, leaving two intact digits indicating the number of the sequel. To pass the ESRB\u2019s muster, Valve shot a new version with two of those fingers back in place (and simply curled down) that eventually appeared on the game\u2019s box art<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFaliszek pointed out that this is a game where people are torn apart using a chainsaw,\u201d we reported at the time<\/a>. \u201cBut bitten off fingers on the logo? That\u2019s crossing some line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLikely to cause serious offense to the average consumer\u201d<\/p>\n

The ESRB of nearly two decades ago could also be quite restrictive regarding game trailers in particular. In 2007, the ratings group requested the removal of trailers<\/a> for D3\u2019s Dark Sector and 2K\u2019s The Darkness after they had already been shared across the web (behind age gates on most major news sites). In a statement at the time<\/a>, the ESRB\u2019s Patricia Vance said that \u201cthe mere presence of an age gate does not permit a publisher to simply put whatever content it wishes into the trailer. All trailers must still conform to [the Advertising Review Council]\u2019s Principles and Guidelines, which prohibit the display of excessively violent content or any content likely to cause serious offense to the average consumer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in 2009, Ars wrote about what was being reported as a leaked trailer for the then-upcoming Left…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-836441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}