Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Spoilers Are Already All Over The Place
Unless you're living in a dungeon deep below the earth, it's kind of impossible to avoid the hype for "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" at this point. It's been four years since the sequel to "Breath of the Wild" was first announced, and the game has been in development for even longer than that. As players prepare to finally explore everything this bold new vision of Hyrule has to offer on May 12, it's safe to say that fan anticipation is at an all-time high. Unfortunately for those players who have been waiting nearly half a decade, it's also becoming almost impossible to avoid "Tears of the Kingdom" spoilers on the internet.
Video game journalists have already gotten their hands on "Tears of the Kingdom" and shared their early thoughts on the game, which seems to exceed expectations (despite some worrisome performance issues). However, professional reviewers are not the only ones to have received copies ahead of the game's full retail release. More than a week ago, some users on social media began to share supposed screenshots and pictures of the game running on their Switch consoles, with a few even purportedly showing off the game's official title screen. Though some of these were written off as convincing photoshops at the time, a handful of them may have been legitimate.
Since then, screenshots and footage supposedly from "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" have started to pop up on social media platforms such as Twitter and Reddit. Simply scrolling through your Twitter feed is becoming a progressively trickier proposition.
Tears of the Kingdom leaks are running rampant
Over the last few days, some players have reportedly received their preorder copies of the Collector's Edition of "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom." While some players have been content simply to post pictures of the box art and the cartridge itself, others have taken things a step further and posted gameplay clips and screenshots of the map.
someone leaked 10 seconds of new footage, major spoilers are gonna hit soon so stay safe
— Matthewsworld (@Matthewsworld04) May 1, 2023
SVG won't be reposting any of those spoilers here (you're welcome, "Zelda" fans), but gamers who have been side-stepping spoilers up until this point are getting understandably frustrated. Given the fact that "Tears of the Kingdom" is an open world game like its predecessor, so much of the fun of the game comes from the excitement of discovery. Even something as "small" as the reveal of a returning NPC is enough to taint the experience for some fans.
Some fans on Twitter are questioning why anyone would post these spoilers without any kind of warning, other than to chase after followers and notoriety. Others are simply advising their fellow fans to mute "Zelda" spoilers on their Twitter feed or to stay off the app entirely until the game is out in the world. And then there are some folks just cracking jokes about how quickly the leaks began to multiply. Pun incoming:
Nintendo's not going to be happy
Not only has footage of the map and various gameplay elements leaked before launch day, but its worth remembering that the official art book for the game leaked online a little while back. With all of the new leaks making their way to the internet, some players are going back to the art book pages that were scanned and posted to Reddit back in February, trying to connect the dots with the newly revealed spoilers. Some players are pretty sure they've figured out some huge plot twists and unseen elements of Hyrule lore, which mega-fans may want to avoid if they want to go in fresh.
Of course, fans have pointed out that things aren't likely to go too well for anyone who tries to leak "Tears of the Kingdom" screenshots and gameplay ahead of release. Nintendo is notably very protective of its intellectual property, issuing DMCA strikes at every opportunity and generally clamping down on any leaks as soon as they are discovered. After all, the company quickly turned to Discord to hunt down the aforementioned art book leaker. This has led to a number of jokes on the "Tears of the Kingdom" subreddit regarding Nintendo's elite team of assassins being dispatched to stamp out leakers before they reveal too much.
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u/leosnose from discussion
Someone had the game!
in
tearsofthekingdom
But even with Nintendo's infamously quick response time (and regardless of whether or not the company really does have a squad of ninjas at its disposal), it'll more than likely be difficult for the gaming giant to curtail every leaker with access to the game. Until "Tears of the Kingdom" officially arrives on store shelves and in digital libraries in just under two weeks, hardcore fans may want to avoid checking social media unless absolutely necessary.