Portal Companion Collection leaks Portal 2 beta levels for the first time

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Level prototypes, dev tools, and cut content has been datamined from the new Switch port

Portal 2
(Image credit: Valve)

The Portal: Companion Collection appears to include previously-unseen beta content cut from Portal 2.

Portal: Companion Collection received a surprise drop on Switch during yesterday's Nintendo Direct Mini, and is now available to download on the platform (for a surprisingly generous price). As noted by Youtuber Ossy Flawol, however, the collection offered a little more than just the two games as we might know them.

As pointed out in a video on the new content (which you can check out below), the company behind the Switch port is Nvidia, which has leaked cut Portal content in previous porting projects. This time has proved no exception, as Portal 2 beta content not included in the eventual release has been datamined from the new collection.

Flawol explains that the leak's significance stems from the fact that Valve has kept the beta content under wraps for years on other paltforms. As a result, the new leak is the first time that Portal 2 beta content has surfaced.

Some cut levels are broadly recognizable when compared to the finished product. Certain minor details have been changed, but Flawol suggests that otherwise the levels are fairly similar to how they appear in-game. Elsewhere, however, there's access to dev tools, a look at what appears to be an early version of the game's ending, and even access to the level shown in the game's E3 reveal back in 2010. Finally, a massive co-op level is shown, detailing puzzles that would eventually feature in the finished version of Portal 2's multiplayer component.

While there's a lot to see already, Flawol implies that there might also be plenty more to discover, and that other members of the community are already checking out other files, so it'll be interesting to see what else we might learn about the making of Portal 2 as a result of the companion collection.

Here's everything announced during the Nintendo Direct Mini.

Ali Jones
Ali Jones
Managing Editor, News

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.