Report: Digital Extremes trespasser enjoys free lunch, discovers new game
Today's weird, amusing, and entirely unverified tale of discovery comes to us by way of Reddit, where a fellow calling himself UndercoverLegend claims to have literally walked into the London, Ontario offices of Digital Extremes, hung out, talked to some employees—who assumed he was an employee, too—tucked into a free lunch, and heard about a new game in the works called Keystone. The original post has been removed for containing specific information about the studio's location, but a redacted version has been put up on Kotaku.
The poster said he was able to track down the studio's location thanks to a statue of a Tenno, an ancient race of warriors in the free-to-play shooter Warframe, which is visible through a window. Once inside, he bypassed the high-tech fingerprint locks with a combination of wit, daring, and masterful infiltration skills: "I just followed some tattooed dude into the door after he unlocked it," UndercoverLegend wrote. "He didn't even ask me any questions."
Emboldened, the intruder decided to see how far he could push his luck, which is how he discovered what is apparently Digital Extremes' new game. "At 12:01 pm the lunch lady says that food is ready over the overcom and I join up the line. There's a bunch of plates stacked and then you just grab the food buffet style," he continued. "I sat down and enjoyed my free lunch and started talking to some people. They told me they were working on a new game called Keystone. They said it was a FPS with cards (like magic the gathering style perhaps) but didn't explain that much about it."
He continued dicking around until about 6 at night, when he made his getaway along with "other" employees who had begun heading home. One of them actually said, "See you tomorrow," a sentiment he reciprocated. In a follow-up, he added that he didn't take any photos to confirm his adventure because he knew he was trespassing and "didn't want to look suspicious."
Again, this is all entirely unconfirmed, and it does sound a bit hinky. But not long after the story got out, Digital Extremes Community Manager Rebecca Ford addressed the issue directly. "A recent claim from a fan circulating the web alleges he or she spent the day with us incognito. Well, Canadians are known for being welcoming and polite!" she wrote. "We employ over two hundred passionate gamers committed to delivering kickass games like Warframe and Sword Coast Legends and while we're flattered someone would want to spend the day with all of us, please respect our privacy and know that, like any business would, we completely discourage any and all unlawful attempts to enter our Relay. We love our Tenno, but let's be respectful and law-abiding. Trespassing is never OK."
It's a funny story, if a bit creepy—and as for the new game, Keystone, we've reached out to Digital Extremes to see if it will confirm its existence. I'm not expecting it to happen, but I also wouldn't have expected that some guy could waltz into a game studio and spend the day faking out literally everyone he meets.
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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.