Massive 13TB Steam Leak Unveils Beta Versions of Portal 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and More

A massive leak of thirteen terabytes of Steam depot data, covering the years 2003 to 2013, has surfaced online in the last 24 hours. This data, now available through a torrent, reportedly includes beta builds for a multitude of games, such as Portal 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Batman: Arkham Asylum.

While the source of this leak remains unverified, it appears to be legitimate and can be easily located online. Due to the sheer volume of data, it’s taking time for the community to sift through everything, but a catalog of the discovered contents is being compiled on GitHub.

Dubbed the “Steam2” leak, this trove of data from 2003 to 2013 is significant, especially considering how much larger game file sizes have become in recent years. Thirteen terabytes of pre-2014 data is more substantial than many might initially think.

This leak could potentially be one of the largest in gaming history, and it will be fascinating to see how it unfolds.

Essentially, a vast collection of beta builds uploaded to Steam between 2003 and 2013 has been leaked.

With this in mind, there’s a lot of speculation circulating, so it’s wise to approach any rumored Half-Life 3 “leaks” with skepticism for the next week or two.

However, some intriguing confirmations have already emerged, including the existence of a Portal 2 beta.

The leak includes 12 TB of Valve’s internal builds and game assets from 2003 to 2013, featuring early versions of Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, CS:GO, F-Stop, and possibly Episode 3. The community is actively investigating the data, so the coming days could be wild.

Videos showcasing gameplay from these prerelease versions have started appearing online, prompting Elan Ruskin, a former Valve developer known for his work on Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal, and Portal 2, to comment on the prerelease builds of Portal 2 and Left 4 Dead 2.

Ruskin humorously cautioned against spending time on these early versions, stating that all the good ideas made it into the final products, and anything not included was likely not worth pursuing.

According to Gabe Follower, who was among the first to share news of the leak, the data was accessed from a “publicly accessible endpoint” on Steam’s servers. In this context, an “endpoint” refers to a URL that allows users to send requests and receive responses.

Typically, these endpoints are publicly available but require authorization for access. If Follower’s information is accurate, it raises questions about whether this leak is connected to the launch of SteamOS in 2013.

Follower also noted that the limitation of the “Steam2” depot data to 2013 might relate to Valve’s transition to a new storage system that year. For reference, Steam launched on September 12, 2003, and SteamOS 1.0 was released in December 2013, aligning with the timeline of the leaked data.