Splatoon 3's Ending Leaks Online A Week Before Launch

thegamer.com:

Somehow, it's happened again. A first-party Nintendo game has found itself out in the wild long before its intended launch, and as a result, spoilers are circulating online. Splatoon 3 is the latest victim, with a store seeming breaking street date, sending physical copies out early. It's even being reported that a cracked version of the game is being shared, making it possible to pirate it before you can even purchase it.

But perhaps most worrying for Nintendo is the fact that it now has to contend with Splatoon leaks across social media, as spoilers are being shared on Twitter, YouTube, and more. In fact, full cutscenes - including the ending - have found their way to YouTube, racking up tens of thousands of views before Nintendo is able to take them down.

Related: Splatoon 3 Preview - Iteration Not Evolution, And That’s A Good Thing

This leak was first spotted by VGC, who reported on the Twitter account @Splatoon3Leaks sharing content from the game. This user has admitted they don't have a copy of the game themselves, rather they are sharing images and videos they are being sent by those who do. Their page is full of full gameplay videos, showing that some players have made it incredibly far into the single-player campaign - even completing it in some cases.

Because of this, some sites are already purporting to have cracked game files, downloadable to anyone on PC. For obvious reasons, we didn't try this ourselves, but it wouldn't be surprising to see the game pirated before release. The exact same thing has happened to other leaked Nintendo games that found their way online before launch.

We saw a similar scenario play out with both Mario Party Superstars and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. And while not