A Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leaker has been fired

By Olivia Richman

|

Apr 15, 2023

Reading time: 2 min

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is one of the most hyped Nintendo releases of 2023 and there have been a lot of leaks leading up to its release in May. Now, one of the leakers has been caught and fired.

As the release of Tears of the Kingdom draws near, more and more leakers have been sharing tantalizing information about the new Zelda game. One of the biggest leaks, however, was the early reveal of the Tears of the Kingdom OLED Switch. A post on Reddit states that the guy who leaked the upcoming console has been fired from GameStop.

Tears of the Kingdom leaker in trouble

A leaker going by Mike shared a screenshot on Reddit back in March of 2023 that showed a Tears of the Kingdom Switch model in the inventory database. This was a day before Nintendo’s official reveal. Mike told Kotaku in a follow-up phone interview that he wanted to give people a “heads up” when it came to pre-ordering the console.

At the time, Mike thought nothing of it since it was mostly speculation. But he was fired two weeks later.

Blog post image
Source: Reddit

According to Mike, the leak was traced to his store in Massachusetts on April 5. After watching the new Super Mario Bros. Movie, Mike was called into the backroom for a meeting with the district manager and a GameStop supervisor. He confessed right away when asked about the Reddit post but claimed he wasn’t aware it went against any policies.

A week later, on April 11, the store manager told Mike — who had been suspended — that he’d been fired. According to the Tears of the Kingdom leaker, the supervisor was forced to fire him by Nintendo.

While being fired isn’t great, the real tragedy was when Mike realized he wouldn’t be able to secure his Tears of the Kingdom OLED Switch pre-order.

On the Reddit thread, gamers expressed sympathy for Mike. A lot of people felt that it wasn’t right to get fired over the screenshot, which Mike called an “educated guess” and not a true leak.

Nintendo has been cracking down on leaks hardcore, making this outcome not the least bit surprising. This didn’t stop Nintendo fans from largely rallying behind Mike, with some even asking him to set up a Go Fund Me to get him the Tears of the Kingdom OLED Switch and make up for his lost job.

Recommended

Diablo 4 Thorns: How does it work?

It’s a simple, but powerful substat.

By Fariha Bhatti

|

Apr 23, 2024

cod

All the methods and secrets for quickly increasing your rank in Call of Duty Warzone 2

CoD Warzone is one of the most dynamic projects in the battle royale genre, which allows players to...

By William Davis

|

Apr 23, 2024

Mr Beast vs T-Series war is real, latest X interaction proves

Mr Beast has accused T-Series of hiding his comment.

By Fariha Bhatti

|

Apr 23, 2024