A man who earlier this week posted a video on YouTube that showed off 45 minutes of gameplay from Bethesda Game Studios" upcoming sci-fi RPG Starfield well ahead of its release date has been arrested in Shelby County, Tennessee.
Kotaku reports that 29-year-old Darin Harris uploaded an unboxing and gameplay video of Starfield on YouTube earlier this week. The video was quickly removed from YouTube but not before it went viral and got copied and posted on other social media outlets.
Unboxing + Gameplay video is online #Starfield
— Visceral (@zVisceral_) August 22, 2023
Get it while you can. https://t.co/CHVglRo1iU
The report says that Harris later started selling boxed copies of Starfield, including the expensive Constellation Edition, on the Mercari site. While it"s currently unknown how Harris got these boxed copies of the game, that was apparently enough for someone to give the local law enforcement authorities a tip.
Kotaku reports that Harris was arrested by the Shelby County, Tennessee Sheriff"s Department on Thursday. A search on the Shelby County"s inmate lookup page shows that Harris was booked on a felony of theft of property between $2,500 and $10,000. He was also booked on two misdemeanor charges; one for theft of property of $1,000 or less and the other for possession of marijuana.
Harris posted bail of $10,000 today, according to the site, and his next scheduled court date is on Monday, August 28. Kotaku was unable to reach Harris for comment, and neither Bethesda nor Starfield"s publisher Microsoft responded to a request for comment.
Bethesda has sent advanced copies of Starfield to members of the media and game influences for review, but under strict NDAs asking them not to reveal anything at all about the game ahead of the review embargo deadline of August 31.
That"s also when the game is finally available to the public via early access in North and South America for folks who preordered the Premium or Constellation editions. People who buy the Standard Edition of Starfield can start playing on September 5.
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