Warning: Tears of the Kingdom Has Leaked Online, Copies Sold Ahead of Release
Posted on May 01 2023 by Rod Lloyd
Warning to all Zelda fans looking to avoid spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: the game has been leaked, in its entirety, online.
Physical copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have reportedly been sold ahead of the game’s May 12th release date. As a result, the game’s full ROM has made its way online, putting pirated copies in the hands of players across the internet. Early portions of the game have been — and continue to be — streamed and shared on video platforms like Twitch, YouTube, and Twitter.
Zelda Dungeon has confirmed the authenticity of these leaks. Out of respect to Nintendo and to fans looking to avoid spoilers, we will not be publishing any information, images, or materials resulting from these leaks. Readers who wish to see leaked materials should seek them out themselves.
Reports of early sales of Tears of the Kingdom began popping up late last week and over the weekend, with users on Reddit and elsewhere sharing photos of the game’s case and Collector’s Edition materials. It wasn’t long before physical copies were listed on reseller websites for hundreds of dollars and the game’s files were dumped online.
Players in possession of pirated copies of Tears of the Kingdom have already streamed early portions of the game on Twitch before their channels were suspended. Unfortunately, such footage has been — and continues to be — re-shared on video platforms like Twitch, YouTube, and Twitter. Readers are encouraged to be on guard for spoilers on these platforms until the game’s official release.
Parties distributing pirated copies of the game on platforms like Discord have reportedly expressed concern over Nintendo’s potential actions to curb and address these leaks. The Big N did recently subpoena Discord for personal information of users involved in leaking the art book included in Tears of the Kingdom‘s Collector’s Edition. A number of Tears of the Kingdom leak-related Discord servers have reportedly been shutdown already, and some users have taken to posting stock pleas of innocence in case of potential criminal investigations into the servers.
We encourage all readers who wish to avoid Tears of the Kingdom spoilers to take the necessary precautions when on social media and within other online communities.
Nintendo has not yet commented on this leak. Stay tuned to Zelda Dungeon for further updates.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is scheduled to release on May 12th, 2023.
What is your take on this situation? Feel free to share your thoughts on the leak below, but do not share any images or video from the leak. Please be considerate to others who wish to avoid spoilers. Use Disqus’ spoiler tags if necessary.
Source: Kotaku
Rod Lloyd is the Editor-In-Chief at Zelda Dungeon, overseeing the news and feature content for the site. Rod is considered the veteran of the writing team, having started writing for Zelda Informer in 2014 as a Junior Editor. After ZD and ZI officially merged in 2017, he stepped into the Managing Editor role and has helped steer the ship ever since. He stepped up to lead the writing team as Editor-In-Chief in 2023.
You can reach Rod at: rod.lloyd@zeldadungeon.net
