The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leaks have hit the internet

The kingdom isn't the only one crying

Anyone excited for next week’s release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom should be very careful online from now on — it looks like the game has leaked. Reports have come in showing that details from the game have been circulating on social media, forums like Reddit and Resetera, and even on some streaming platforms.

While leaks and spoilers are pretty typical within the games industry, Nintendo games in particular seem to have a penchant for leaking very early. Pokémon games in particular often have spoilers floating around weeks or even months in advance, as seen with both Sword & Shield and Scarlet & Violet.

Naturally, as Nintendo’s biggest game of the year (and likely one of the biggest games on the Nintendo Switch), Tears of the Kingdom was a hot target for leakers. The issue of spoilers has been exacerbated by Nintendo’s careful and considered marketing for the game, which has seemingly held a lot of details back for players to discover themselves.

This isn’t the first time details about Tears of the Kingdom have hit the internet either. Back in February, an entire art book, from start to finish, was leaked on the internet. It included details about as yet unrevealed characters, weapons, and mechanics, many of which still have not been officially revealed to the public.

That set of leaks set Nintendo off, who subsequently started taking legal action to have the leaks removed from Discord. Despite their removal, Nintendo has since started closing in on the leaker, requesting the name, address, telephone number, and email address of the user who initially posted the leaks from Discord.

Nintendo has been known to leak some details about the game early too, as was seen when a price hike for the game was leaked on the eShop. At $69.99, Tears of the Kingdom will be the first and so far only first-party game to be released at a price higher than $60 in the US.

If you’re trying to avoid leaks, but still want some juicy Tears of the Kingdom details, you should check out our breakdown of the final Tears of the Kingdom trailer, where we scour through the trailer frame-by-frame to find secrets and come up with theories.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will launch on the Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2023. So close.