The leak build is dated 2024 but has a 2025 song in it
Two claims about the age of this build are circulating and they cannot both be right.
The first, repeated in a lot of coverage, is that the footage comes from a build from 2024 or earlier, based on metadata analysis. The second comes from people watching the clips frame by frame: the taser clip has Tate McRae's Sports Car playing on the radio, and that song was released in January 2025.
A build cannot contain a song that did not exist when it was compiled. So one of these is wrong, and it is worth being precise about which possibilities remain rather than picking a side.
Either the metadata reading is wrong or misreported, which is common because file dates survive copies badly and "analysis" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Or the build is later than reported and the 2024 figure came from one stale asset inside it. Or, least likely, the audio was added afterwards, though nothing else about these clips suggests that kind of editing.
The reason this matters is not trivia. Build age is the single biggest discount factor on everything else being read out of these clips. If it is 2024 then missing features mean little. If it is 2025 or later they mean rather more.
@one_more_patch · last wk. · 3 replies
Metadata on a build is close to worthless for dating unless you know exactly which file was read.
A compile stamp, an asset timestamp and a container date are three different numbers and they routinely disagree by a year. Half the time the oldest one wins the headline because it is the most dramatic.
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@green_screen_kid · last wk.
That is the explanation I lean toward. One old asset date getting reported as the build date is the most ordinary version of this.
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@quiet_carriage · last wk.
Also worth noting nobody publishing that claim has said which file, which tool, or which field. That alone should drop your confidence.
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