'Half-Life' Caught A Hacker By Inviting Him To A Job Interview

It’s video game week at One Cracked Fact, and we’re giving away a $100 gift card. Whichever digital gaming store you want—you pick! Subscribe to win, if you haven’t already. 

In 2003, the most anticipated upcoming video game was Half-Life 2. It would come out the following year and be considered one of the best games ever, and now, almost 20 years later, it appears … well, maybe even better in hindsight than it did at the time. 

But while still in 2003, developer Valve had some problems. A hacker got into their system, downloaded the entire unfinished game’s source code, and released it online. With a little tinkering on the source code, players were now able to run Half-Life 2, sort of. But the bigger deal was that the public got a glimpse at the game’s state and realized development was like a year behind schedule. 

So, big embarrassment for Valve, who now admitted the game wouldn’t be ready by the promised release date. They tried to find who was responsible for the leak, and they put the FBI on the case, but the investigation went nowhere. Then the hacker went and emailed Valve director Gabe Newell personally.

The hacker was a German 20-year-old named Axel Gembe, though in the email, he just identified himself as “Da Guy.” He was a fan, he said in the message, and he’d never intended to hurt the company. In fact, now that he’d proven his tech prowess, maybe Valve would realize they could use a guy like him. Gembe was perhaps influenced by all those (often exaggerated) stories of criminals who get hired as experts by big businesses or the police.

'Half-Life' Caught A Hacker By Inviting Him To A Job Interview
Source: Pinoy Daily News