It would appear that Splatoon 3 has leaked on the internet, as screenshots, videos, and cracked editions of the game have begun to spread across the web. Unfortunately, us writers here at Kakariko Herald were subjected to this. As reported by Nintendo Life, players have also been able to get hold of retail copies days prior to the game’s release, bypassing its street date. Obviously, this is a major concern for those who’d like to go in blind, and it certainly puts a damper on the ‘fun.’
Even if folks have their hands on the game, they won’t be far ahead on the multiplayer scene: those servers won’t go live until the game legitimately releases.
We’re not sure what, if anything, Nintendo will do in this case. There’s certainly precedence for leaks taking place prior to a game’s release: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was one of the most recent examples. Also Metroid Dread. Only time will tell, we suppose.
As a general rule, when covering leaks, we do not link out to unofficial distributions of software that has not been released yet, including screenshots, videos, or ROMs. Nintendo have not officially released this game, so it would be unethical of us to further spread this.
