The Last of Us 2 leaker has been caught, and it's not a disgruntled Naughty Dog employee

(Image credit: Naughty Dog)

Sony has identified the people (yes people) responsible for the massive The Last of Us 2 leaks, and it's not the rumored disgruntled Naughty Dog employee, according to a report from Polygon.

"SIE has identified the primary individuals responsible for the unauthorized release of TLOU2 assets," a Sony rep told Polygon. "They are not affiliated with Naughty Dog or SIE. We are unable to comment further because the information is subject to an on-going investigation."

As GamesRadar previously reported, a ton of information about The Last of Us 2 leaked in late April, including cutscenes, a complete list of the levels, and spoilers for the entire plot. Since the leaked footage appeared to be from an internal build, and Naughty Dog has previously been called out for some serious crunch issues, rumors swirled that a disgruntled former employee was behind the leaks.

Now it's clear that this isn't the case, and it seems like more than one person was involved based on Sony's statement, which refers to the guilty party as "individuals." It's not clear whether we'll ever find out who these people are, or how they seemed to have gotten their hands on what looks like an internal Naughty Dog build.

There's also no word yet on what sort of legal ramifications these "individuals" will face, but considering there's now an army of jerks spamming Twitch chats and livestreams with The Last of Us 2 spoilers, I sincerely hope justice is served piping hot.

In the past, video game leaks have been subject to the fullest extent of the law - like Epic suing several testers who leaked Fortnite Chapter 2 and Nintendo sending subpoenas to whoever leaked images from Pokemon Sword and Shield before its release.

For more, check out everything revealed in Last of Us 2's Outbreak Day info drop, or watch below for our hands-on gameplay preview of the sequel. 

Alyssa Mercante

Alyssa Mercante is an editor and features writer at GamesRadar based out of Brooklyn, NY. Prior to entering the industry, she got her Masters's degree in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Newcastle University with a dissertation focusing on contemporary indie games. She spends most of her time playing competitive shooters and in-depth RPGs and was recently on a PAX Panel about the best bars in video games. In her spare time Alyssa rescues cats, practices her Italian, and plays soccer.