Fans Freak Out As Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Leaks Two Weeks Early

erek

[H]F Junkie
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"Some people are already playing the Breath of the Wild sequel" !

"It reads, “In case of an investigation by any federal entity or similar, I do not have any involvement with this group or with the people in it, I do not know how I am here, probably added by a third party, I do not support any actions by members of this group.” One of the main servers for leaks that blew up with links to pirated copies has already been nuked.

Nintendo recently subpoenaed Discord for personal information of users it alleged were involved in the leak of the game’s pre-order art book back in February. It also went on the offensive against major Zelda YouTubers in April who occasionally posted videos featuring modded Breath of the Wild content, including a multiplayer mode. One hacker who was found guilty of being involved in Switch piracy operations is set to be released from prison but still owes Nintendo millions that he’ll be repaying until he dies.

Tears of the Kingdom leaking early shouldn’t come as a surprise though. Despite Nintendo’s beset efforts, the same thing happened with the Wii U version of Breath of the Wild in 2017, and Pokémon leaks keep happening earlier and earlier as well.

Update 5/1/2023 12:54 p.m. ET: Added information about of the main Tears of the Kingdom leak Discord servers getting shutdown."

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Source: https://kotaku.com/zelda-tears-kingdom-leak-switch-story-spoilers-1850391411
 
Already talked about in the main thread, but down with the filthy pirates! :D No spoilers please.

EDIT: in case erek pulls his "rename thread and edit post to something completely different" trick again... :).

"Some people are already playing the Breath of the Wild sequel" !

"It reads, “In case of an investigation by any federal entity or similar, I do not have any involvement with this group or with the people in it, I do not know how I am here, probably added by a third party, I do not support any actions by members of this group.” One of the main servers for leaks that blew up with links to pirated copies has already been nuked.

Nintendo recently subpoenaed Discord for personal information of users it alleged were involved in the leak of the game’s pre-order art book back in February. It also went on the offensive against major Zelda YouTubers in April who occasionally posted videos featuring modded Breath of the Wild content, including a multiplayer mode. One hacker who was found guilty of being involved in Switch piracy operations is set to be released from prison but still owes Nintendo millions that he’ll be repaying until he dies.

Tears of the Kingdom leaking early shouldn’t come as a surprise though. Despite Nintendo’s beset efforts, the same thing happened with the Wii U version of Breath of the Wild in 2017, and Pokémon leaks keep happening earlier and earlier as well.

Update 5/1/2023 12:54 p.m. ET: Added information about of the main Tears of the Kingdom leak Discord servers getting shutdown."

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Source: https://kotaku.com/zelda-tears-kingdom-leak-switch-story-spoilers-1850391411
 
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These games leak as cartridge dumps. The cartridge dumps become available soon after retail cartridges enter the distribution system. The cartridges are dumped from softmodded Switches which have an unpatchable exploit in the boot loader. As long as Nintendo is releasing Switch cartridges this will just keep happening. If they didn't issue cartridges then the game wouldn't be pirated until release day on the E-Shop. Nintendo will never even recover the cost of the litigation against Gary Bowser from him.
 
These games leak as cartridge dumps. The cartridge dumps become available soon after retail cartridges enter the distribution system. The cartridges are dumped from softmodded Switches which have an unpatchable exploit in the boot loader. As long as Nintendo is releasing Switch cartridges this will just keep happening. If they didn't issue cartridges then the game wouldn't be pirated until release day on the E-Shop. Nintendo will never even recover the cost of the litigation against Gary Bowser from him.
1. It probably seems like Nintendo is taking a position that if they can win enough legal cases over pirates, it will deter Piracy. However, it is morely likely an 'eye for an eye' sort of thing. Nintendo is very proud of their Intellectual Properties and will avenge them, regardless of the costs.

2. I would like to think that someday, a judge will be lenient on Bowser, and cancel the wage garnishment. But, its not about getting their money back. It is about making thieves suffer, for what they have done. If Bowser's wages are garnished for years, he will have a tough time living with a single income. At 30% wage garnishment: He would have to make $75,000, to keep $52500. Nintendo views this as duly avenged.
 
Pirates don't use terror tactics to try to scare people into doing their bidding.
Nintendo isn't using terror tactics. Pirates sre: "Let us steal your stuff and deprive you of your living freely." Nintendo is an honest vendor plying their wares. Protecting your business and property isn't a terror tactic when someone crossed the legal line
 
Ah, I'm sure that Nintendo's reaction to this will be totally normal and measured.

"in related news, Nintendo Intellectual Property Defence Agency, Ltd. has announced today what they call 'appropriate countermeasures' to contain the leak of Tears of the Kingdom content and dissuade further infringements. Reports indicate that several physical Gamestop and Target retail stores have been implicated in facilitating the leak of embargoed Tears of the Kingdom content via pre-release sales and illicit ROM dumps- Nintendo IPDA has confirmed that within the next 18 hours the company will commence strategic strikes on these locations with conventional-warhead ICBM systems. Unconfirmed earlier Reuters wires indicated that Nintendo IPDA had initially requested permission for nuclear strategic strikes against the alleged infringers, but this request was allegedly denied by United States Global Strike Command as the potential radioactive fallout from such an action would 'be detrimental to Target Corporation stock prices going into the crucial summer months'. Likewise, an intended Nintendo strategic strike against the Target Corporation's Minneapolis headquarters was reportedly canceled as US GSC was successful in convincing Nintendo IPDA that the leak of Tears of the Kingdom content was the result of 'lone wolf actions by rogue retail employees and not condoned, recommended, or sanctioned by Target corporate leadership'.

In addition to the upcoming strategic strikes on 'primary infringers' - details of which are readily available due to communications between Nintendo IPDA and various US Defence agencies being leaked on Discord- there are difficult-to-verify reports that Nintendo IPDA is additionally in advanced stages of planning direct retaliation against the following groups:
- any individuals who facilitated the spread of leaked Tears of the Kingdom content on Discord
- any individuals who facilitated the spread of leaked Tears of the Kingdom content via BitTorrent, LimeWire, and SneakerNet channels
- any journalists suspected of having mentioned the existence of leaked Tears of the Kingdom content in any text, video, or audio coverage, regardless of context
- any individuals who are aware of the existence of Leaked Tears of the Kingdom content, regardless of whether they have attempted to access such content
- any individual suspected of having an Admin position on any Discord server, regardless of whether the server is suspected to have been complicit in the spread of leaked Tears of the Kingdom content
- any and all employees of Discord
- any individual suspected of, at any point in time, having created fan art depicting or referencing any Nintendo characters
- any YouTube content creators suspected of having created content on YouTube, regardless of whether said content is confirmed to contain Nintendo Intellectual property
At this time there has been no confirmation of the measures Nintendo IPDA intends to use against these 'secondary-tertiary infringers', but it is considered that further strategic strikes are unlikely due to logistics and legal hurdles. Rather, it is believed that Nintendo IPDA will deploy 'rapid global response teams' to forcibly extradite to Japan any individual suspected to be a member of the aforementioned groups- once extradited, it is likely that such individuals will be subjected to Nintendo's experimental 'Soul Prison' program for a term of no less than 50 years. When asked for comment on these reports of planned severe retaliatory measures, a Nintendo spokesperson refused detailed comment, only saying 'make good decisions please'.

Further reporting on this developing situation will resume in the year 2073 when our team of journalists is released from Nintendo Soul Prison."
 
Nintendo isn't using terror tactics. Pirates sre: "Let us steal your stuff and deprive you of your living freely." Nintendo is an honest vendor plying their wares.

Nintendo recently subpoenaed Discord for personal information of users it alleged were involved in the leak of the game’s pre-order art book back in February. It also went on the offensive against major Zelda YouTubers in April who occasionally posted videos featuring modded Breath of the Wild content, including a multiplayer mode. One hacker who was found guilty of being involved in Switch piracy operations is set to be released from prison but still owes Nintendo millions that he’ll be repaying until he dies.

Literally right there in the OP.
 
All of the people they went after were infringing on Nintendo ip purposefully some even profiting off of it... Their responses aren't terror tactics. Change my mind.
How is using modded content, if you legally own the game, infringing their IP?

I'm not wasting my time, your posts on this subject have not and probably will never change. My opinion about Nintendo is not going to change, either.
 
How is using modded content, if you legally own the game, infringing their IP?

I'm not wasting my time, your posts on this subject have not and probably will never change. My opinion about Nintendo is not going to change, either.
It's called copyright infringement. They broke protections on the game to use it for a platform Nintendo doesn't even sell it for, then modded it and showed off on youtube. I'd agree that one is less egregious than putting it up for download or selling piracy hardware, but it's still against the law.
 
Now this will probably lead to some type of drm on switch games, just f'in great. they just couldn't at least wait til the game is out ffs.
 
Now this will probably lead to some type of drm on switch games, just f'in great. they just couldn't at least wait til the game is out ffs.
Are you mad because you like pirating switch games, or that it was released early? :p You aren't seriously complaining about possibly not being able to pirate games as easily for emulation in the future, are you?
 
Are you mad because you like pirating switch games, or that it was released early? :p You aren't seriously complaining about possibly not being able to pirate games as easily for emulation in the future, are you?
Nope, i just dont want to deal with drm on future switch games, as an actual owner of a switch. (i've already pre-ordered this )
 
Screw pirates. Nintendo didn't make them steal their stuff and potential income.

Both suck. Nintendo is anti-consumer as fuck and their policies regarding video content are incredibly stupid. The leaks suck since the spoilers do ruin things for people. That said, I don't really care if people pirate Nintendo games. Nintendo is a shit company that happens to make excellent games, can't blame people for not wanting to support them or their tactics.
 
Part of me feels like this is Nintendo's fault for lazy design and distribution, plus relying on cartridges.

The other part of me is pissed at the pirates circulating a major title before release as this is the sort of thing that will lead Nintendo drop the cartridge format and make resales impossible (which, in turn, will drive more games to disappear from sale in future like happened with the eShop).
 
Got my Zelda: ToTK switch, got my special edition pre-ordered, just anxiously awaiting the release and now I need to do my best to avoid the fuck out of spoilers. sigh.
 
Nintendo's stance on piracy has been a concern in the past, but ultimately, I feel that their decision to legally kill community-made games and focus on destroying people's lively hood was detrimental to my support of them. As such, I am less inclined to support their intellectual property rights regarding community-created content as long as no monetary gain is involved. Also, I would legally consume their titles if they choose to release their products on PC, however, till that time comes, I will play the game however I want to.
 
Have you looked at the hardware sales numbers on the Switch? You don’t. But clearly a huge portion of the market does.
Have you looked at the hardware sales of the PS5 and Xbox's? Sony and Microsoft figured out that some people don't want to play games on inferior consoles and insist to do so on PC. You won't get PC gamers to go buy a console over their more capable PC's to play exclusives. Have you seen a PS4 emulator? No, because Sony decided to port their exclusives to PC.

This guy here plays games on Linux and he doesn't play his Switch games on the Switch because he has a capable PC that can play Switch games at 60fps 4K with Ray-Tracing. The fact that it leaked out early and is already playable on PC through emulators shows that it's time for Nintendo to wise up and port their games to PC. Obviously not delayed ports either, because the Switch is so old and slow that any PC can play them.
 
I play my switch more than my PC.
Just finished up Xenoblade 3: future redeemed. Absolutely fucking fantastic.

Would I have liked it at a higher resolution? Sure. Did that stop me from putting 150+ hours into the game? No.

Expecting to put about that much time into Zelda; ToTK as well, mostly because it's portable. Not despite it.
 
Have you looked at the hardware sales of the PS5 and Xbox's? Sony and Microsoft figured out that some people don't want to play games on inferior consoles and insist to do so on PC. You won't get PC gamers to go buy a console over their more capable PC's to play exclusives. Have you seen a PS4 emulator? No, because Sony decided to port their exclusives to PC.

This guy here plays games on Linux and he doesn't play his Switch games on the Switch because he has a capable PC that can play Switch games at 60fps 4K with Ray-Tracing. The fact that it leaked out early and is already playable on PC through emulators shows that it's time for Nintendo to wise up and port their games to PC. Obviously not delayed ports either, because the Switch is so old and slow that any PC can play them.

Your entire premise is based on the idea that people should get to do whatever they want with someone else’s work and their IP and it doesn’t work that way.

Every discussion about console quality and your PC master race attitude is just a distraction.

No one has to play games. It’s just selfishness masked as necessity. If Nintendo is “so garbage” then stop playing their games. If they are creating things worth playing, pay for them. It’s pretty simple.

Paying for them and then emulating is a grey area. But that isn’t even what you’ve been advocating for.
 
Your entire premise is based on the idea that people should get to do whatever they want with someone else’s work and their IP and it doesn’t work that way.
It has and it does. Legally no. Morally, who cares.
No one has to play games. It’s just selfishness masked as necessity. If Nintendo is “so garbage” then stop playing their games. If they are creating things worth playing, pay for them. It’s pretty simple.
Worth paying is subjective. The problem I have with a lot of things today is that nobody is respecting my time. You want me to watch ads or pay money? Your AAA game has a lot of waste of time elements in it? I've played through Breath of the Wild on PC of course and man does Nintendo like to waste my time. If you collect all the Korok seeds like I did and get this achievement, it's rather insulting. Most of the game was empty with trash mods that aren't worth your time. Some of these games should pay me $60 for this bullshit. Oh and don't get me started on the Master Sword DLC. The Master Sword is trash until you're at the castle or you get the DLC. The weapon breaking system was bullshit and lazy. As much as people have fond memories of Breath of the Wild, the game just ended up pissing me off. Tears of the Kingdom might just be more of the same problems.
DF8vDp7UAAAN13w.jpg

Paying for them and then emulating is a grey area. But that isn’t even what you’ve been advocating for.
Yes and yes. I'm advocating for choice. You do what you want because the multibillion dollar company isn't going anywhere. As a company you can either respect that or respect deez nuts. Nintendo can bring their games to PC, and lower prices if that brings more sales. The only reason this leak was such a big problem is that Nintendo keeps holding onto their ecosystem likes it's the only way to sell games. If it's not ported to PC then pirate it through emulators. Game is not affordable then pirate it. Let Nintendo figure out why this happens and deal with it, because again they're a multibillion dollar company.
nintendo piracy.jpg
 
It has and it does. Legally no. Morally, who cares.

Worth paying is subjective. The problem I have with a lot of things today is that nobody is respecting my time. You want me to watch ads or pay money? Your AAA game has a lot of waste of time elements in it? I've played through Breath of the Wild on PC of course and man does Nintendo like to waste my time. If you collect all the Korok seeds like I did and get this achievement, it's rather insulting. Most of the game was empty with trash mods that aren't worth your time. Some of these games should pay me $60 for this bullshit. Oh and don't get me started on the Master Sword DLC. The Master Sword is trash until you're at the castle or you get the DLC. The weapon breaking system was bullshit and lazy. As much as people have fond memories of Breath of the Wild, the game just ended up pissing me off. Tears of the Kingdom might just be more of the same problems.
View attachment 568068

Yes and yes. I'm advocating for choice. You do what you want because the multibillion dollar company isn't going anywhere. As a company you can either respect that or respect deez nuts. Nintendo can bring their games to PC, and lower prices if that brings more sales. The only reason this leak was such a big problem is that Nintendo keeps holding onto their ecosystem likes it's the only way to sell games. If it's not ported to PC then pirate it through emulators. Game is not affordable then pirate it. Let Nintendo figure out why this happens and deal with it, because again they're a multibillion dollar company.
View attachment 568067
Wow, just... Wow. I can't roll my eyes hard enough to everything in this post. Talk about being a self-entitled leech, and you don't even seem to realize it's wrong in every way.
 
It has and it does. Legally no. Morally, who cares.

Worth paying is subjective. The problem I have with a lot of things today is that nobody is respecting my time. You want me to watch ads or pay money? Your AAA game has a lot of waste of time elements in it? I've played through Breath of the Wild on PC of course and man does Nintendo like to waste my time. If you collect all the Korok seeds like I did and get this achievement, it's rather insulting. Most of the game was empty with trash mods that aren't worth your time. Some of these games should pay me $60 for this bullshit. Oh and don't get me started on the Master Sword DLC. The Master Sword is trash until you're at the castle or you get the DLC. The weapon breaking system was bullshit and lazy. As much as people have fond memories of Breath of the Wild, the game just ended up pissing me off. Tears of the Kingdom might just be more of the same problems.


Yes and yes. I'm advocating for choice. You do what you want because the multibillion dollar company isn't going anywhere. As a company you can either respect that or respect deez nuts. Nintendo can bring their games to PC, and lower prices if that brings more sales. The only reason this leak was such a big problem is that Nintendo keeps holding onto their ecosystem likes it's the only way to sell games. If it's not ported to PC then pirate it through emulators. Game is not affordable then pirate it. Let Nintendo figure out why this happens and deal with it, because again they're a multibillion dollar company.
So i get not liking some games as every has different tastes, but you literally played botw and the DLC, and took the time to collect all 900 Korok seeds and your basically saying you hated the game?

i-dont-believe-you-lies.gif
 
It has and it does. Legally no. Morally, who cares.

Worth paying is subjective. The problem I have with a lot of things today is that nobody is respecting my time. You want me to watch ads or pay money? Your AAA game has a lot of waste of time elements in it? I've played through Breath of the Wild on PC of course and man does Nintendo like to waste my time. If you collect all the Korok seeds like I did and get this achievement, it's rather insulting. Most of the game was empty with trash mods that aren't worth your time. Some of these games should pay me $60 for this bullshit. Oh and don't get me started on the Master Sword DLC. The Master Sword is trash until you're at the castle or you get the DLC. The weapon breaking system was bullshit and lazy. As much as people have fond memories of Breath of the Wild, the game just ended up pissing me off. Tears of the Kingdom might just be more of the same problems.
View attachment 568068

Yes and yes. I'm advocating for choice. You do what you want because the multibillion dollar company isn't going anywhere. As a company you can either respect that or respect deez nuts. Nintendo can bring their games to PC, and lower prices if that brings more sales. The only reason this leak was such a big problem is that Nintendo keeps holding onto their ecosystem likes it's the only way to sell games. If it's not ported to PC then pirate it through emulators. Game is not affordable then pirate it. Let Nintendo figure out why this happens and deal with it, because again they're a multibillion dollar company.
View attachment 568067
You live in an insane upside down world.

I sincerely hope you do a job and instead of paying you ever for the rest of your life, they just say: "thank you, we are free to do with your work whatever we want. And in lieu of paying you, we'll tell you your work is garbage but we're still going to use it."
 
I absolutely loved Breath of the Wild, but fuck no if I'm gonna waste my time to get all 900 korok seeds. (I got around 300). I stopped at 110 out of the 120 shrines. Does that mean that the game was awful? No, it means that I knew when I got tired of something so I quit before it turned into busywork.
 
It kind of amazes me that people are still falling over themselves to defend multinational, billion dollar corporations who routinely engage in bad behavior, crying crocodile tears every time they dream that they didn't make ALL the hypothetical profit they "should", and engaging in repressive legal and fiscal campaigns for retribution WAY out of proportion for any hypothetical infraction. The issue of the state of intellectual property itself is another whole discussion, but suffice it to say that Nintendo has been one of the worst in the gaming space in this regard.
The discussion of piracy continually has demonstrated that the industries have been continually wrong about the severity and often the nature of every alleged offense.

Suffice it to say that Nintendo is in no danger of failing as a company, much less even taking a financial blow from this. Given the response to Breath of the Wild and awaiting its sequel, its likely Tears of the Kingdom will be a run away success for Nintendo selling tons upon tons , while the next controversy will enevitably be how it stacks up to not only its predecessor but if it evolved enough as an open world title "in the age of Elden Ring". Breaking the street date and similar links have happened before and will happen again; I doubt its going to be more than an incidental issue if any and in fact will continue to add to the hype level for the game's release itself. Lets try to approach this reasonably.
 
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