The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the most highly anticipated games of the current console generation. The RPG from CD Projekt Red promises a massive game world to explore without immersion-breaking load times, a host of dangerous monsters to defeat, and even an ending to Geralt’s story. As such, fans of the series cannot wait until the game’s May 19 release date.

Some gamers are therefore extremely thankful for those retailers who started selling The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt a week earlier than anticipated. Some stores in the United Arab Emirates put copies of the game on shelves at the end of last week, in spite of the game’s release date. It wasn’t only Conan O’Brien who was able to get an early look at the title: with no date lock in place for these console copies of The Witcher 3, those who purchased these impromptu early editions of the game were able to play it immediately.

Not wanting to keep their Witcher 3 gameplay to themselves, some of those who received a copy of the game early have taken to streaming site Twitch to broadcast their playthroughs to any interested video game fans. It’s fair to say, however, that Twitch is not entirely on board with these streams. The popular site has started banning those players who reveal their early The Witcher 3 footage, as broadcasting the footage is in breach of DMCA guidelines.

Twitch addressed the issue on its official Twitch Support Twitter account, stating that “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is not allowed for broadcasting until May 19, 2015.” Twitch continued to state that “Broadcasting before this date is subject to DMCA gudelines.” Some players, however, did not listen to this warning, and continued to stream CD Projekt Red’s latest entry into the story of Geralt.

Continuing from that warning, the streaming service started banning those Twitch channels that breached these broadcast violations. It may have been too late for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, though, as already a number of screenshots and snippets of video footage have made their way onto the web, a full week before the public was supposed to have access to the game. It not only provides CD Projekt Red with a serious headache, but has also given fans of the series some spoilers about The Witcher 3 to watch out for. Simply put, players who want to avoid reading or seeing any plot elements about Wild Hunt should be careful what they look for between now and release.

It’s not the first time CD Projekt Red has been hit by the embarrassment of leaked content. Last year, the developer suffered at the hands of a major hack that revealed the plot – and endings – of The Witcher 3. At least this time, however, there appears to be a finite point of failure with the retailers, and the early release of the title could see CD Projekt Red seek out damages against the stores in question.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be released on May 19 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Source: Twitch Support