Steam Glitch Leaks Unreleased Game Achievements, Raising Spoiler Risk
The leak turns achievement lists into a spoiler vector for unreleased games, and the Exophase admin's account points the cause at Valve's API rather than the database sites.
Reporting from 1 source: Automaton.
Achievements for unreleased games, normally private, have appeared on unofficial database sites SteamDB and Exophase due to what appears to be a glitch on Steam's side. Exophase administrator x3sphere said the site pulls data through Steam's API and that private achievement information became accessible, possibly a mistake on Valve's side. Major titles are included, and some spoilers based on the lists have already surfaced.
Steam's achievement system works like PlayStation trophies and Xbox achievements: players earn them by meeting conditions during gameplay. For unreleased games, those lists normally stay hidden from the library and the official community page. This time they surfaced on SteamDB and Exophase, including placeholder achievements for games still in development.
The Exophase administrator, x3sphere, said the site pulls its data through Steam's API and that private achievement information became accessible through it, which he suggested may be a mistake on Valve's side. The same leak was confirmed on SteamDB, and sites that build databases from Steam's API are likely affected. Some spoilers based on the achievements have already appeared.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.