Was Half-Life 2 Leak sold?

[Omega93]

I've heard some rumors that the 2003 leak was sold, which made the people who "bought" the game, angry because of how unfinished it was. Is this true?

[The One Epicplayer]

Yes.

[Витой]

Back in 1990s - 2000s bootleg VHS/CDs was a big deal here in Russia. So of course as soon as HL2 was leaked bootlegers were selling discs with it on markets.

There's at least five news entries on Russian fan site about various bootleg HL2 beta discs that were sold here back in 2003-early 2004:

One
Two
Three
Four
Five

Notice news dates - from October 2003 to January 2004. I'm sure there were even more copies of it made.

I remember back in early 2005 when I first heard about HL2 beta and it was a problem for me to find and download it in the Internet I tried to find at least one of those but I had no luck. Everyone I asked about it thought I am crazy "there's full game released, why do you need this 'beta'?"

Yes.

Very informative 

[FirstBrazilian]

Pretty much all of the above said, yes.

[EvilGeniusRo]

Shame none of these bootlegs cd's ever came up for sale online, would have at least wanted to see how these looked. Guess everyone threw them away once Half-Life 2 got officially released.
I bet Marphy Black would have a field day if he'd be able to get his hands on a loose copy, put it next to the bootleg Half-Life 2 bubble gum box of his 

[SleepySpaceBird]

I've heard some rumors that the 2003 leak was sold, which made the people who "bought" the game, angry because of how unfinished it was. Is this true?

I feel it's necessary to mention in this thread that inspired me to go looking in the first place- I've tracked one of these down and created an overview video for you guys!

https://hl2-beta.ru/index.php?topic=29151


Here's the thread I created for it, includes the video link and further explanation etc.

Thanks guys!

[Con-Struct]

I've heard some rumors that the 2003 leak was sold, which made the people who "bought" the game, angry because of how unfinished it was. Is this true?

Yes, as all the people above said.