The last week has been a real rollercoaster for us who are waiting for the release of Kingdom Hearts III. We've had new trailers and screenshots, sure, but above all, there was one unfortunate incident that caused quite a bit of commotion.
That is, the whole game nearly leaked, only six weeks before the official release.
Actually, if we're being nitpicky here, it did fully leak, not just nearly. Last Saturday, a man named Broderick Jackson made a Facebook Marketplace listing selling physical copies of Kingdom Hearts III for $100, stolen from a shipping manufacturer. To back up his claim, he posted various clips of him playing the game, showing scenes that had never been publicly showed before.
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| Photo of the leaker holding the game. |
Naturally, the fandom went into an immediate mode of full-on panic. This game is the culmination of a story fifteen years in the making, and we have been waiting for it a long long time, so naturally most of us fans were not interested in getting the game spoiled this close to the release. Thankfully the community proved itself to be a good one, and those who reposted the leaks were quickly shunned out from the most common fandom spaces. The Kingdom Hearts subreddit, for example, took a absolute zero tolerance position on the matter, permanently banning anyone who tried to post any leaked content or spoilers. Thanks to this, most of us (including me) managed to stay unspoiled.
Despite the wonderful efforts to save the general community from spoilers, the fandom was still in a chaotic state. By this time, the original leaker had already removed the listing and stopped posting any more videos, but now there were other assholes going around sending people direct messages with alleged end-game spoilers (mostly fake) and links to the leaks.
There were various rumours and misinformation spreading: some said the leaker had 10 copies of the game, some said he had 80; some said he had sold them already, some said he hadn't; some said he was part of a mob or a gang, some said he wasn't. Nobody seemed to know the full story, only that the leaker's entire life from address and cell-phone to previous criminal records had all been doxxed on 4chan within a couple of hours (not that he made it very hard, considering he used his official name in the Facebook listing).
An important message for #KingdomHearts III from Director Tetsuya Nomura: pic.twitter.com/j9aVRFTS5B— KINGDOM HEARTS (@KINGDOMHEARTS) December 16, 2018
Saturday night, the game's director Tetsuya Nomura released an official statement. In it, he confirms that he and the team are aware of the leaks, and wish the fans do not spread them around. As a pre-measure for situations like these, they had not included the game's epilogue and secret ending on the disc, but will rather release them after the release.
After this, everything finally began to calm down. There we no more new leaks popping up and Quinton Flynn, a voice actor for the game, claimed the leaker had been captured. Based on the fact the leaker hasn't been heard from since, this seems likely to be true.
Last I heard they captured the guy responsible.— Quinton Flynn Official (@quintonflynn) December 16, 2018
It still remains unknown whether the leaker managed to sell any copies or not. If he did manage to give copies to other people, they have clearly been smart enough to keep it to themselves and not post anything online. No great end-game spoilers ended up getting leaked as the guy responsible was not intrested in playing the game himself, and after a new trailer was released a couple days later, the incident seems to have blown over.
It was a wild two days, and I have to admit even I got furious at the leaker, and anxious about accidentally being spoiled. Games get leaked all the time, and generally I don't mind small spoilers, but Kingdom Hearts III is a very special game. Me and other fans have waited for it a long time, and if there's one game I want to experience when it releases, as intended by the developers, it's this one.
Now that the "threat" is over, the whole thing seems almost amusing. A game about the power of friendship and Mickey Mouse almost got leaked by an alleged mob member... This week certainly has not been dull.!
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