Leaks: way cooler when you write LEAK LEAK LEAK all over parts of the image.

It looks like some carefully laid marketing plans got burned over the weekend as some interested parties with access to the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale beta have done a bit of digging through the beta's files and uncovered a mess of unannounced content, from characters to background stages.

Folks posting on Reddit and NeoGAF started getting deep into this stuff on Saturday and uncovered the following additions to the game's already announced playable roster.

• Dante (Devil May Cry)
• Evil Cole (InFamous)
• Nariko (Heavenly Sword)
• Raiden (Metal Gear Solid)
• Sackboy (LittleBigPlanet)
• Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank)
• Sir Daniel Fortesque (MediEvil)
• Spike (Ape Escape)

I suspect this image is used on some sort of stage select screen in the game.

Unannounced background stages were also discovered, including one based on BioShock Infinite's floating city, Columbia, and an Uncharted stage that appears to have players jumping across a series of trucks that are falling out of the back of an airplane. GameSpot has compiled a list of the other uncovered information, including a list of items and unplayable minion characters. GameSpot also contacted Sony, who had no comment on the authenticity of the files. They are, however, totally authentic.

So how does something like this happen? We'll probably never know the whole story, but I bet the people responsible for removing references to unannounced content before packing up the beta are probably hating life right about now. It'll be interesting to see if Sony goes for the old Capcom play of pretending that the leaks never happened and meting out the rest of the roster at Gamescom, PAX, and other similarly opportune points for info distribution.

Now that this next (and presumably last) chunk of the playable character roster is out there, how do you feel about PlayStation All-Stars? Seems like a good group with some nice third-party inclusions, but it's sort of surprising that there's no Crash Bandicoot on the list. Well... there's always DLC, right?