Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has already leaked, so look out for spoilers

A big warning to those perusing the internet over the next 11 days: Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has already leaked.

Right out the gate I’ll say you don’t have to worry about spoilers here, as I won’t be sharing any. But it appears that the game has leaked early, just under two weeks before its May 12 release date. Currently it appears that both photos and videos that apparently showing the game’s opening have been shared online, across social media, private Discords, and private livestreams. So safe to say you should either put some mutes on certain words on sites like Twitter, or stay clear altogether.

As reported by VGC, the bigger problem for Nintendo is that the game has reportedly already been made to run on PC via emulation, something that will make spoiling the game even easier. Emulation itself isn’t illegal, though the distribution of ROMs is, which is historically something that Nintendo hasn’t been favourable towards. VGC also reported that a boxed copy also seems to have been sold online, so if you’re even avoiding spoilers for things like box art, be careful of that.

Last month, Nintendo shared Tears of the Kingdom’s final pre-launch trailer, which finally introduced us to rehydrated Ganondorf, as the fandom has lovingly dubbed him. Fans have been wondering if we’d see him at peak physical condition as opposed to the mummified version we’ve seen so far, and it turns out this version of the classic character will be voiced by none other than Matt Mercer.

VG247 also recently got to go hands-on with the game in a preview, saying, “It would be hyperbolic to say if you were late to the party and played 100 hours of Breath of the Wild recently, rather than in 2017, you’re still going to find Tears of the Kingdom completely different. However, the new additions to the core loop make do make this feel like a full sequel, not just an update. The Fuse power steals the show, letting you take an experimental approach to almost everything you encounter.”