Nintendo is pursuing legal action against the individual who leaked the artbook for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom back in February. The 200-page artbook was leaked in its entirety several months before the game’s launch, showing unpublished official art and potentially some story-lite spoilers for the anticipated Breath of the Wild sequel. Nintendo is now requesting information about the leaker.
As reported by TorrentFreak, Nintendo recently filed an application for a DMCA subpoena at the district court of California following the artbook leak. The leak occurred on the game’s Discord server by a user named Julien#2743. It’s unclear how they obtained the artbook but some suspect that the individual might’ve been an employee at Nintendo or knew sources close to the project’s development.
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The subpoena from Nintendo is requesting any information on Julien#2743, which reads:
“[Nintendo of America] is requesting the attached proposed subpoena that would order Discord Inc. to disclose the identity, including the name(s), address(es), telephone number(s), and e-mail addresses(es) of the user Julien#2743, who is responsible for posting infringing content that appeared at the following channel Discord channel Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.”
This isn’t the first time that Nintendo has taken legal action against leaks. Back in 2019, two individuals were fined $150,000 each for leaking pages from the official Pokemon Sword and Shield strategy guide that weren’t made available to the public yet.
Needless to say, the Tears of the Kingdom artbook leaker now finds themself in serious trouble. Discord has yet to officially respond to the subpoena but we imagine it won’t be long before the leaker’s identity is handed over to Nintendo, which has historically shown that it doesn’t take kindly to leaks of its properties.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launches on 12 May 2023 exclusively for Nintendo Switch.
Source: TorrentFreak
