NDAs are serious things and breaking them can have serious consequences. This is because sometimes NDAs are put into place to prevent information from being leaked to a competitor who might then try to come out with a product before the company does. It can also sometimes paint the product in a bad way, especially if it is a prototype or beta that is being shown.
All of this has the potential to negatively impact sales, so it is understandable why many companies are pretty strict about this kind of stuff. In fact Bethesda and Microsoft have shown how serious they are when they came down hard of a gamer who thought it might have been a good idea to share a video clip of Fallout 76 on Twitter.
The player in question was part of the Fallout 76 stress test and was required to click and agreement acknowledging that they are effectively under an NDA by taking part. However the player decided to break that NDA by sharing footage of the game, which ultimately resulted in that player’s Twitter and Xbox accounts being taken down, and Bethesda informing that player that they had been banned from the stress test and beta until the 25th of October.
The player has since had their Twitter account reinstated, but unfortunately the ban on the stress test and beta was still in effect, and the player’s Xbox Gold, Game Pass, and Xbox Insider accounts have been suspended until the 1st of January.
Filed in . Read more about Bethesda, Fallout, Legal, Microsoft, Social Hit and Xbox One.