Starfield Leaker Gets Arrested, Charged With A Felony

Starfield

As punishment, will be forced to buy all new rereleases of Skyrim for the next 100 years.*

*That’s a joke, son, a joke!

This should stand as a good reminder to some that the ol’ theft isn’t all fun and games. Because the man that leaked the first 40 minutes of the upcoming Bethesda release Starfield has been arrested and charged with a felony. No, not for the video leak; rather because he obtained the game illegally… and more.

Per Kotaku, 29-year-old Darin (or alternatively, Darrin?) Harris was arrested and booked in Shelby County, Tennessee on Friday, August 25th. The charges? Felony theft of property costing $2500-10,000, a misdemeanor charge of theft of property $1000 or less, and (because the officers must’ve really felt like busting his balls), misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana. All that said, within the day, Mr. Harris had posted his $10,000 bail.

As for the footage that is most likely what initially got him in hot water, Harris uploaded footage of himself playing the game, recorded via his phone, onto YouTube on Tuesday the 22nd. While it was quickly removed thanks to content ID, much of it was already recorded, screenshot, and shared. Perhaps the most interesting part is the fact that the internet still remains itself; many of the comments criticized Harris’ lack of skill in playing the game. It seems that Harris was not terribly familiar with the sorts of mechanics in Bethesda RPG’s.

Later, he then shared another video, in which he said the following:

Todd, no offense man, that’s a good game. […] They were saying I play like a beginner cause I’m not a game expert I was just trying something out. That’s a good game y’all don’t want to miss it.

Darin (Darrin?) Harris

He then started listing several other copies of the game, from standard to Constellation editions, on the Japanese e-commerce site Mercari.

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Starfield

Initially, many social media users expressed disbelief that this wasn’t a scam; after all, how could he get so many copies of the game? He then, in a baffling move, uploaded video of himself packing a number of his sales, which featured a pile of Starfield boxes next to him.

Y’all thought I’d be out here putting stuff on the internet and it ain’t real, nah baby that ain’t how we do it, that ain’t how we do that. Y’all used to playing with little boys.

Darin (Darrin?) Harris

By the 24th, it seems to have dawned on Harris that he had, in fact, showed his entire ass on the internet, at which point he began to attempt to scrub as many of these videos from the internet as he could. Unfortunately, he was seemingly unaware that the internet never forgets. It’s unclear who tipped off the authorities; could it be Bethesda? Microsoft? One of the many, many people who likely saw one of Harris’ many videos? We may never know. But we do know that the whole thing would work pretty well as a greentext:

Starfield

Source: IGN

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B. Simmons

Based out of Glendale California, Bryan is a GAMbIT's resident gaming contributor. Specializing in PC and portable gaming, you can find Bryan on his 3DS playing Monster Hunter or at one of the various conventions throughout the state.

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