The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was leaked earlier this week, with some players attempting to play the Switch game ahead of the May 12 release date. While Nintendo has not officially acknowledged the situationhas someone who used to work there and probably not in the way you would expect.
Like some players on Reddit and Discord, Twitter user imahumanandimagamer posted an image of Tears of the Kingdom installed early on a switch. “Lol,” they tweeted when a finger pointed at the game’s icon in the photo. It’s not clear if the game was a pirated install on a hacked Switch or a physical copy purchased prematurely from a reseller or store that has passed its sell-by date.
Either way, Reggie Fils-Aimé, the former President of Nintendo of America for 13 years, finally responded. “I don’t know what you want,” the veteran gaming executive wroteCiting Liam Neeson’s ex-assassin turned confused American Abroad Movie 2008 out of stock. “What I have are very special skills, skills that I have acquired over a very long career, skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.”
It was funny and also kind of weird how social media interactions that are full of meaning and also destroy the whole context often tend to be. The Twitter user imahumanandimagamer states in his profile that he is 16 years old. Has a former executive at Nintendo, the renowned company for its anti-leak and anti-piracy litigationjust joke about killing a child who may have illegally obtained a copy of it Tears of the Kingdom?
Someone immediately told imahumanandimagamer that they screwed up and should probably make their account private. Within an hour the account was deleted, but Fils-Aimé Tposted a screenshot of the interaction for posterity. Just for meme posterity, I’m sure.
I have no idea if Fils-Aimé got early access to the game but he will no doubt play once it comes out either way. He’s a big Nintendo fan himself The Legend of Zelda Series occupies a special place in his heart. Perhaps the most memorable passage from his recent business biography revolves around connection to the pasta game that became like “a second job” for him.
“I spent the day creating and executing marketing programs for Pizza Hut and then came home to play zelda after you’ve prepared dinner and continue deep into the night,” he wrote. Fils-Aimé played with his sons and at one point even called Nintendo’s gameplay hotline to ask for help solving one of the dungeon puzzles.
He continues:
After finishing the game one night, I was at the final boss fight. Defeating this enemy would end the game. At this point it was around 3:00 am and I had to get up in a few hours to get ready for work. I stopped to get a few hours of sleep, but during my work day all I could think about was getting back to the game.
As I entered the house that evening, I heard my son squeal with excitement. My heart sank. I knew exactly what had happened. He found my file and spent the next few hours beating the last boss. He had accomplished this just before I walked in the door. He could see the credits for the game, which I would never see as these were only played the first time a game was completed.
That was before Fils-Aimé’s career at Nintendo, so he couldn’t let Nintendo Ninjas make his son disappear too. Instead, he would continue to create them Pizza Hut Bigfoot Pizza a few years later.
