Back in 2009, Ars Technica dutifully reported on what was then believed to be a leaked trailer for the upcoming zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2, describing the footage as looking "straight from a high-gloss action movie." Now, 17 years later, we must issue a correction of epic proportions: that trailer wasn't leaked. Valve leaked it. On purpose.

This revelation comes courtesy of Chet Faliszek, a former Valve writer, who in a newly posted video about cut lines in the game casually admitted: "For Left 4 Dead 2 with the ESRB… we leaked our trailer ahead of time because they wouldn't let us release the trailer."

Ah, the ESRB - the Entertainment Software Rating Board, the self-appointed guardians of gaming morality since 1994. Back then, if you wanted your game on actual retail shelves, you had to play their game, which included adhering to marketing guidelines that banned trailers with "graphic and/or excessive depictions" of violence, weapons, blood, gore, and "crude and/or offensive language." You know, the stuff that sells video games.

Valve had already butted heads with the ESRB earlier that year over a promotional image for Left 4 Dead 2 that featured a hand with three gnawed-off fingers. The ESRB cried foul, so Valve re-shot it with two fingers intact (and simply curled down) for the box art. As Ars noted at the time: "This is a game where people are torn apart using a chainsaw. But bitten off fingers on the logo? That's crossing some line."

And the ESRB didn't mess around with trailers, either. In 2007, they demanded removal of trailers for Dark Sector and The Darkness even after they'd been posted behind age gates. ESRB's Patricia Vance sternly reminded everyone that "the mere presence of an age gate does not permit a publisher to simply put whatever content it wishes into the trailer."

So, facing potential enforcement over the Left 4 Dead 2 trailer, Valve decided to take matters into its own hands - or, more accurately, into the hands of the internet. They seeded the trailer as a "leak," knowing it would spread like wildfire, even reaching those who were loudly planning to boycott the game. Some folks at the time were suspicious, as evidenced by a contemporaneous Reddit thread, but the ruse largely worked.

Faliszek explained the context: "You have to remember… Valve was in fights with the ESRB, with Australia, with Germany, with a bunch of countries about the profanity in the game, the violence." He added, "I'll just admit that [we leaked the trailer]. I think we can't get in trouble for that now. It's like 20 years ago."

Ironically, the same "leaked" footage later served as the game's intro cinematic, and Left 4 Dead 2 ultimately received just an "M for Mature" rating - not the dreaded AO (Adults Only) that Manhunt 2 got two years earlier. So much for "excessively violent" and "likely to cause serious offense."

Today, Valve and other publishers don't need such subterfuge. The ESRB's updated advertising principles now allow trailers to include content from the game as long as it reflects the game's true nature. But back in 2009, Valve had to lie to the ESRB and the entire internet just to show some zombie dismemberment. Ah, the good old days.