The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom officially launches for the Switch on May 12, but some people are already playing the game thanks to a leak.
As VGC reports, images and videos of the opening section of the game have started appearing online suggesting one or more copies have found their way into the hands of games. At least one retail copy of the Switch title has been sold via auction for $300.
If that's not enough bad news for Nintendo, VGC also managed to confirm the game has already been converted into a ROM file for use with an emulator on PC. The existence of a working ROM means no Nintendo hardware is required to play the game—a PC powerful enough to emulate it and a copy of the ROM file is all that's needed.
The game leak follows a 204-page art book leak back in February and Nintendo has been left scrambling to take down as much content as it can while also attempting to track down who leaked the game in the first place.
Back in 2021, PC emulation allowed Breath of the Wild to run at 8K with ray tracing. It seems likely the same will be possible for Tears of the Kingdom. Nintendo is therefore left to launch a game on Switch that looks inferior to the leaked copy some gamers will have been playing for a couple of weeks.
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