Zelda TOTK 2
Image: Nintendo

Over the weekend, images from the Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom art book leaked online revealing unannounced details about the most anticipated launch on this year's gaming calendar.

With the 12th May release date still many weeks away, we thought it would be a good idea to make plain our approach to Zelda spoilers here at NL, as there's a good chance there'll be more leaks in the coming weeks. This is the same approach we take with other titles — the Pokémon games, for instance — but it's worth reiterating for readers concerned about potentially leaked information.

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Simply put, you can rest easy and safe in the knowledge that Nintendo Life will remain a spoiler-free space for anyone looking to play Tears of the Kingdom fresh on launch day. As video game fans first and foremost, we want to play the game unspoiled as much as anybody, and we're keen to preserve the intended mystery for NL readers and everyone in the wider gaming community, too.

Just as we do with Pokémon, we will report on any officially announced aspects and details about the game, but you needn't worry about stumbling on end-game reveals or startling under-wraps revelations in our news articles.

Of course, gaming leaks are a matter of course these days, with details routinely finding their way into the wild ahead of any big game's launch. Sometimes code gets dumped on the web weeks in advance, but not all leaks are quite so nefarious. It only takes a retailer to break street date or post to arrive unexpectedly early and before you know it the entire game has been streamed and archived online before most fans have had a chance to boot up the thing!

For fans, this can be irritating at the best of times, but even more so with series which only release once a generation (or so). These games don't come out very often, and the last thing we want to do is ruin a delightful surprise or element of TOTK you've been waiting years to experience.

While our pre-launch coverage of Tears of the Kingdom will not include spoilers or details designed to be experienced for the first time in-game, this doesn't mean we won't cover leaks at all. However, our headline and lead image won't contain specifics. Our coverage of the art book leak is a good example of the PSA-style article you'll see should more leaks occur in the future:

As we mentioned in the above post, we'd recommend you taking to your social media platform of choice immediately and muting keywords if you want to avoid any and all details of the game cropping up in your feed. Having to be so proactive to avoid spoilers is a shame, but it's increasingly necessary these days unless you want to quit social media for several months. Feel free to reach out in the comments with any questions you have.

Zelda TOTK 3
Image: Nintendo

Okay, as you were!