Game leak or official announcement? Here is how to tell

Gaming communities are good at finding clues before publishers are ready to talk. Store listings, trademarks, rating-board entries, code strings, and internal-looking screenshots can all point toward a project without confirming its final name, date, or features.

Viral Laundry identifies the type of evidence in the headline. A datamine is not a release announcement. A retailer placeholder can be wrong. A rating entry is stronger evidence that something exists, but regional versions and dates may still change.

Official trailers, publisher posts, and platform listings become the primary source once they appear. Earlier reporting should be updated rather than left online as though speculation and confirmation are equal.

That labeling keeps the excitement of discovery while protecting readers from treating every convincing mock-up as a finished product.