Starfield leaker has been arrested and charged for selling stolen goods

The person who leaked 45 minutes of Starfield has been arrested for handling stolen goods.

As spotted by Kotaku, 29-year-old Darin Harris was arrested and booked on a felony charge by the Shelby County Tennessee Sheriff's Office earlier this week after allegedly trying to sell stolen copies of the game ahead of its September 1 release date.

It took just four days for police to find and arrest Harris after he leaked a 45-minute segment of the game online, although, to be fair, Harris had plastered his social media with numerous videos about his ill-gotten gains, so he shouldn't have been too surprised when the police cars pulled up. 

He's since been charged for handling $2,500-$10,000 worth of stolen property - a felony crime - but also faces a misdemeanor charge for theft of goods up to $1,000 and marijuana possession. He was also allegedly trying to sell multiple stolen copies of the game, too. 

The sci-fi game recently went gold, and you can preload Starfield right now on Xbox Series X|S and PC (though Steam players still need to wait until August 30) if you've pre-ordered the game, or are planning on downloading it from the Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

You may have to free up some space beforehand, though – Starfield is going to take up a sizeable 100.19GB on Xbox Series X|S for Standard Edition players, and 117.07GB for those rocking the Premium Edition. PC and Steam users have it worse still, with Bethesda's spacefaring RPG taking up an eye-watering 139.84GB.

Bethesda's head of publishing, Pete Hines, recently suggested that Starfield modders could create their own planets and stories. Speaking during the Bethesda MainStream Special Women in Gaming livestream during Gamescom 2023, Hines discussed the potential of player freedom in Starfield and implied that players could mod the game and create their own planets. 

"I get excited about this game because I love it so much and I love what we've made and what that team made, but there's a lot more coming," Hines said.

"When you start to think about the kind of communities that come around Bethesda Game Studios’ games, and putting a tool like that in the hands of people to go, 'How’d you like to make a planet?'"

Want to go all-in on Starfield hardware for your Xbox before the game launches? Here's where you can buy the Starfield Xbox Wireless Controller, as well as where to buy the Starfield Xbox Wireless Headset.