Just a couple of months ago, a massive leak for Nintendo’s upcoming title, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, caught the attention of many fans eagerly awaiting the game’s arrival. The leak in question was a PDF containing images of Tears of the Kingdom’s official art book, revealing every little detail that could be found inside.
Considering Tears of the Kingdom was still a considerable amount of time away from its launch date of May 12, 2023, this was an enormous leak to make its way through the internet and stir up some trouble with the fan-labeled ‘Nintendo Ninjas.’
It’s now been revealed that Nintendo is looking to track down the culprit responsible for the leak. TorrentFreak has since received legal documents indicating that Nintendo has pinpointed one user in particular, who was making a fuss and trying to spread the leak around as much as possible. Nintendo is currently in the process of trying to obtain this user’s identity so they can take further legal action.
Coming as no surprise to anyone, Redditors in the community took to the Tears of the Kingdom subreddit to share their thoughts and discussions in the comments of a post by user The_JMace.
Those familiar with Nintendo and longtime fans of the company will already be more than aware of the big N’s strict stance regarding piracy and the illegal use and redistribution of its games or breaching its terms of service. Even installing custom firmware on your Nintendo Switch will more often than not earn you a permanent ban from their online services.
Many fans chimed in with sarcastic remarks towards the leaker, who they believe deserves what is coming for them due to the shameless attempt at taking credit for and aggressively trying to spread the leak even further. Several comments reflect the expected wrath of Nintendo to come in amusing statements, such as FT10LC’s ‘The spectral green hand of Nintendo is going to seal this guy away underground for thousands of years like Ganondorf.’
Other comments make some light fun at Nintendo’s strict standards, such as Boss-429’s response that jokingly claims that Nintendo would even go so far as “to sue a toddler for scribbling a Mario on a wall.” This is based on Nintendo’s long history of cracking down on unofficial products, including non-commercial, free-to-play fan-made video game spin-offs, fan-made merchandise, and in the worst case scenarios, some fan art.
Even though many gamers in the community have been devastated by Nintendo’s strict actions in the past, they’re less than surprised that the company has got bounty hunters on the case this time around, and agree with the action being taken, for the most part. User JunglistTactics even chimed in to reiterate how dire seems thing for the guilty culprit, stating “Good luck mate, Nintendo is like a rabid honey badger when it comes to these issues.”
Multiple claims throughout the discussion indicate that the individual in question isn’t even the original source of the leak. However, because they tried to publicize it and take credit for the whole situation, Nintendo managed to catch them red handed. slymario2416 pointed out that Nintendo will very likely be dishing out some of the worst consequences possible, stating “having Nintendo’s lawyers after you must be terrifying lol. They take their IP and brand VERY seriously and the person that leaked the art book kinda set precedent since Nintendo stuff doesn’t usually leak that early or in that capacity. So RIP leaker”
As of right now, it seems this case is far from over, and that the leaker has much trouble in store for themselves. If not a free advertising campaign for what not to do with unreleased material from big name companies, the Tears of the Kingdom art book scandal has been nothing more than a reminder of the grim consequences that can come from seeking your fifteen minutes of fame on the Internet.
What’s your stance on the whole situation? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below, and be sure to check out the rest of our content here at Twinfinite for more news, guides, and lists covering all of your favorite video game topics.
