Prefacing this post with a massive SPOILERS tag. The video provided in this story is almost certainly a crucial cinematic, most likely the ending, of the upcoming StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm. No spoilers will be written in the text, but don't click play on the video unless you want to wait two more years for some closure. Also, don't trust the comments either.

Just as Blizzard is facing the repercussions of leaked company documents, another leak which is just as damaging has found its way online. This leak, from all appearances, is a very early very early version of the upcoming expansion StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm's ending cinematic. The cinematic features very choppy animation and even storyboard drawings in some portions, but has professional voicework from what sounds like the original StarCraft 2 voice cast.

After watching this myself, I wouldn't recommend that anyone that's a fan of the franchise watch it. It is certainly revealing, but keep in mind that Heard of the Swarm isn't due until Q4 2011. That's a full year pondering a low quality ending cinematic of an amazing game. The third expansion if probably over two years away, a long time to wait for climactic StarCraft content. I feel cursed, after having watched it, but blessed in that I might warn ye who seek to follow my bleak path. You have been warned!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_-_rGcF7rY

There's still plenty of mystery that remains, plenty of details in the cinematic that only serve to confuse and confound. Without getting into specifics, a certain character take on different look than established, and everyone's motivations and emotions are a bit surprising. Then, it's worth wondering what role the location plays as well. Only and unfortunately long time will tell.

This entire situation is quite unfortunate for both Blizzard and its fans. Kotaku is reporting that the video is watermarked with the name of the production company making StarCraft 2's cinematics, the likely source of the leak. This is perhaps a result of Blizzard just becoming so big that even huge like an ending cinematic can slip through a crack.

What are your thoughts on the leak, Ranters? Does it hurt your interest in purchasing a future StarCraft or Blizzard product? Are you excited about the leak, or do you dislike it when these sorts of mistakes happen? What do you think about the ending?

Source: Kotaku