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Acti: MW3 leak became marketing win

But still hasn't identified perpetrator.

Activision has offered its perspective on the massive leak that laid Modern Warfare 3 bare last week, detailing how it tried to turn the situation into a "marketing win".

Speaking in an interview with Joystiq, Activision exec Eric Hirshberg condemned the illicit info dump but explained that, in the end, the publisher twisted the situation to its own advantage.

"Friday was a really interesting, a really kind of cool day," mused Hirshberg.

"While it's definitely not cool to steal other people's intellectual property, and while it's definitely not cool to leak stuff that's not yours, there are ways that you can respond that actually turn the lemons into lemonade. And that's what we tried to do on Friday.

"It would be really easy to just obsess over the event, which was the leak, and obsess over how it happened, and that's only looking backwards," he continued.

"And in the meantime, your launch just started. And you aren't always in control of the schedule and the dialogue, and you need to be comfortable of those rapids in this day and age. That's actually one of the things that separates good marketing from great marketing today."

Following the leak, Activision decided to tear up its original reveal plans and unveil four teaser trailers for its forthcoming FPS early.

"Through our various channels, through Robert Bowling at Infinity Ward, through Facebook and through our YouTube channel, we reached out to our fans and we said, 'Look, we didn't schedule this. This wasn't something we had planned. But everyone seems excited, so we're just going to roll with it. So here they are, a couple of assets that weren't scheduled to be out for another couple of weeks, we're going to release 'em to you today.

"We woke up with a marketing crisis and wanted to go to bed with a marketing win."

Hirshberg also revealed that Activision hadn't tracked down the mole, speculating that the guilty party "clearly had deep access."

"The mystery of the leak itself is not solved, and it's better to let that unfold," he explained, confirming that an investigation is still ongoing.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is expected to launch on 8th November.