The man who leaked the first 40 minutes or so of Bethesda’s highly anticipated RPG Starfield was arrested yesterday – not for leaking spoilers, but because of his theft of the game.
As first reported by Kotaku, 29-year-old Darrin Harris was booked yesterday in Shelby County, Tennessee, on a felony charge of theft of property costing $2500-10,000, a misdemeanor charge of theft of property $1000 or less, and another misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana, per information on the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office website. IGN has obtained the incident report of the arrest, which lists the stolen property as “Video Game: Microsoft Starfield unreleased game.”
While it’s currently unclear what further legal repercussions Harris will still have to face, he posted $10,000 bail today, according to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office website.
The leaked footage first hit the internet on Tuesday, which was taken from a cell phone and posted to Harris’ YouTube account. It was quickly taken down for copyright infringement, but not before spoilers were recorded, screengrabbed, and shared more widely (and they’re still out there, so be careful if you’re trying to play Starfield with as little information as possible).
After some leveled criticism at Harris for how he played the game, as much of the footage involved him struggling to grasp the mechanics, he posted a follow-up video.
“Todd [Howard], no offense man, that’s a good game,” he said at the time. “Perfect timing, about leaving the earth and all that, it’s good stuff. Pretty swell, good moves. They were saying I play like a beginner because I’m not a game expert, I was just trying something out. That’s a good game, y’all don’t want to miss it. Starfield for real.”
The person who leaked the Starfield gameplay on YouTube has uploaded a response video. “Todd, no offense man, that’s a good game.” 😂 #Starfield #Xbox pic.twitter.com/EuwxOhC7BJ
— Rebs Gaming (@Mr_Rebs_) August 22, 2023
Harris’ YouTube and other social media accounts have since been scrubbed of their previous videos, but according to Kotaku, Harris took things further as he began trying to sell copies of Starfield, including the $300 Constellation Edition, on Mercari. While it’s unclear how Harris obtained the copies, or if Microsoft tipped off the Shelby County police about his conduct, he certainly made little secret of his possession of the game.
Starfield hits PC and Xbox Series X/S on Sept. 1 in early access before releasing wider on Sept. 6 – and, if you want more thoughts on the game beyond Harris’, the official review embargo lifts on Aug. 31. For more, check out everything we know about Starfield so far.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.