Leaks and rumors may be part of the “gaming trade’ nowadays, but that doesn’t mean that those whose secrets are being spilled are amused by it. In fact, many gaming developers and publishers have had to work hard over the years to try and limit how people get information about their upcoming titles. Sadly, it never seems to be enough, as leakers, hackers, data miners, and more get the information anyway. An excellent example of this has just been posted on Twitter, as it appears that the reason we’ve been seeing so many Nintendo leaks as of late is because of…Google.
Yes, as in the literal company Google, not just its search engine. According to a post on Twitter and ResetEra, there were Google employees who used a special data breach to go onto Nintendo’s YouTube page and look at the “Private” videos that they made, and then leaked information based on that.
For context, companies like The Big N will upload trailers, gameplay videos, and announcement videos onto their YouTube channels well before things like Directs or other presentations so that they KNOW they’re there and ready to go once the time is right. So, if a person can see that “private backlog” of titles, that would reveal some pretty interesting things, now wouldn’t it?
According to some in the know, this apparently is one of the biggest ways that leakers have been getting information recently, and as we pointed out, it makes sense that they would go for a info spot like this.
Google, after getting exposed on this, apparently said that this kind of “activity” by their employees was “non-intentional.” Sure, that makes sense in the overall, as Google makes its money in numerous other ways and this doesn’t help them at all, but it’s clear they need to tighten the leash on some of its people.
Ironically, there have been plenty of leaks about Nintendo recently, including the upcoming games and specs of the Switch 2, or whatever it will be called. One such leaker, Midiori, has been on a roll with leaked information lately and apparently is getting nervous about it all:
It’s been very well documented in the past that The Big N doesn’t like those who leak information and has gone out of the way to punish those who feel they’re hurting the company. So perhaps it is best that Midori and other leakers like them lay low for a bit until the heat dies down.
