I think the Kotaku leak will have been very upsetting for Bethesda.

It leaked the city, the intro, the couple & baby, Preston Garvey and the Minutemen - even an image of the vault suit and male protagonist.

The only saving grace was the slew of other hoaxes confusing the issue.

We live in an era of instant information over the interwebs. Not all true, but enough is. Game Developers either risk letting the entire cat out of the bag too soon, or have to go completely silent just to maintain some sense of surprise.