Over the weekend, news spread that a massive 12 Terabyte leak of Valve data included Steam and PC builds and prototypes for many classic games. This includes early playable versions of Portal 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Left 4 Dead, as well as what many believe to be a concept weapon (the 'Weaponizer') for the canceled Half-Life 2: Episode 3.
Apparently, access to over 12TB of historical Steam and Valve data wasn't the result of a hack or breach, but of an old, accessible repository that Valve didn't take offline after migrating to SteamPipe in 2013. This means the Steam files (called "depots") represent things stored on Steam servers from 2003 through 2013.
For Valve fans, it's been a treasure trove of sorts, as the Portal 2 Beta, included in the data files, features a different story from the final retail version of the game. Another piece of Valve history is the canceled puzzle game and Portal prequel called F-STOP. In addition to early demos and game prototypes, the Steam leak also contains assets like artwork, trailers, soundtracks, and more.
Valve expert and enthusiast Gabe Follower posted a great video walking through the Valve-specific content in the leak, but since it's a data dump of what Steam's servers looked like in 2013, it's also chock-full of third-party games. Basically, it's a snapshot of what PC gaming was like back in the day. This includes betas, early versions, and even prototype builds for games like Dragon Age: Origins, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Grand Theft Auto 3, Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Spec Ops: The Line, and Spore.
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Does the article say how the repository remained accessible after Valve migrated to SteamPipe in 2013?
Which rare or different versions of Portal 2 are present in the leaked data and how do they differ from the retail release?
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Naturally, this makes accessing the data risky, since it's full of third-party content and assets. Also, since the files aren't arranged with a clear index of what's what, we're likely to see a few surprises pop up in the coming weeks as people go through the 12TB of decade-old Steam data.
