Two months ago, a Discord user named Julien#2743 allegedly leaked 200-page art book for the upcoming game The Legends of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The art book contained information about new characters, enemy types, and locations in the game. Just recently, Nintendo publically responded to this leak.
Nintendo of America has subpoenaed Discord to discover the Tears of the Kingdom leaker’s identity. The subpoena was filed in the Northern District Court of California on April 4th. Nintendo has demanded Discord divulge the user’s personal information in accordance with DMCA regulations.
The subpoena was first reported by TorrentFreak. The document reads: “[Nintendo of America] is requesting the attached proposed subpoena that would order Discord Inc. (“Discord”) 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 (hxxps://discord.gg/ACmJp8N7GG) (the “Infringing Channel”).”
According to the subpoena, Nintendo of America first sent a DMCA notice to Discord on February 21st. Nintendo claimed images or links to images from their copyright-protected and unreleased special edition art book for the game were distributed on a Discord channel named “Tears of the Kingdom Official Discord Server”. Although Discord informed Nintendo the content would be removed, the latter requested an “immediate review and takedown” of the Discord channel, stating the pre-release artwork was still being distributed on the server.
With the recent gameplay presentation, the DLC teases, and the price dispute, Tears of the Kingdom has received assorted press coverage ahead of its release. Despite the gravity of this situation, Tears of the Kingdom‘s launch will likely be unaffected.
The Legends of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is set to launch on May 12th for the Nintendo Switch. No information regarding the leaker’s identity has been revealed at this time.