Ouch. If you hate Game Of Thrones spoilers, you might want to keep your head down and your router disconnected for the next…like, month. Don’t worry, though: this post, at least, will be spoiler free.
The very night before Game Of Thrones Season 5 was set to premiere, the first four episodes of the season have been leaked simultaneously.
Rumors of this leak started circulating on the afternoon of the 11th; by 6 p.m., the files started appearing across myriad torrent trackers. In just a few hours since, over 50,000 people have grabbed the first episode.
Game Of Thrones is already the world’s most pirated show. This.. probably won’t help it lose that title.
Like each season before it, Season 5 of Thrones will consist of just 10 episodes. With this, nearly half of the season has leaked before the first episode even got a chance to officially premiere.
While not as awful as having the entire season leak, I imagine some pretty harsh words are being thrown around HBO HQ right now. The timing has to be particularly painful.
HBO carefully timed the launch of their new, long-awaited standalone streaming service, HBO Now, around the premiere of this new season.
It’s banking on easy, instant, cable-free Game Of Thrones access as a primary selling point.
And now, said service is going to be behind the pirates by a full month. Again: Ouch.
How can HBO respond? Do they ride it out and hope subscribers are willing to wade through spoilers for the next four weeks? Do they release all of the leaked episodes in one blast in order to get everyone on the same page?
HBO has not yet replied to a request for comment.