GastroSmurf

Licensing partners are well aware of the game being played. For LEGO it's not about seeing our reactions, it's about making sure we have enough money saved to buy on release day. The number of people following this sort of thing across all platforms is not insignificant. Today's X-Wing leak is a perfect example of the strategy. Random website gets a bunch of summer set names and prices, no images. If someone at LEGO didn't want them to publish that information, they wouldn't have sent it out in the first place. Ryan Reynolds leaking Deadpool test footage is an extreme example, he was trying to force the studio's hand. Any time you see an article from and industry publication like The Hollywood Reporter or Deadline saying "our sources have learned Matt Smith is in the new Star Wars movie" you're watching the game play out.

Feeling the need to chime in here because more people need to realise how this all works. Controlled leaks work wonders in politics and in Hollywood (anybody remember makingstarwars?), why wouldn't it work for LEGO too? They've been doing it for a long time.