Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the latest 2D platformer from the masters of the form at Nintendo, is due out this week, on October 20. So it’s unfortunate news for both the Japanese gaming giant, and everyone who wants to avoid spoilers, that it’s already leaked online.
In what is unquestionably now a routine pattern, the first-party Switch title has found its way to the darker corners of the internet days before its official release. Beginning as early in the Switch’s lifetime as 2018, when Super Smash Bros. Ultimate appeared online two weeks before its release, and now regularly occurring with games like Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, Metroid Dread, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, this is a perennial issue for the publisher. As it happens—although it’ll be little consolation to Nintendo—this Wonder leak comes somewhat later compared to the two weeks early that most of their titles have appeared.
This could be in part due to Nintendo’s shock-and-awe response after TotK’s leak. This six-day-early leak most likely comes from that far more old-fashioned method, where stock arriving into stores ahead of sale gets filched by a member of staff, then ripped and uploaded.
What makes the Switch’s predicament so unique is that it’s a present-day console that’s already being emulated on PC. This is an unusual situation, with console emulation usually operating a good couple of generations behind, meaning the pursuit rarely impinges on current software sales. (It’s also why PC gaming has been embroiled in the misery of DRM (digital rights management) far longer than console games, as it’s always been easy to copy and run PC games, with no emulation required.)
Right now, emulators are just about managing to replicate the PS3 and are making headway on Xbox 360. There are early, mostly non-working PS4 emulators, and nothing at all for the Xbox One. So while it’s a minefield of unestablished copyright issues, it’s also not something that demonstrably harms sales for developers or publishers (it’s as likely that it helps boost interest in official re-issues and remakes, although the copyright holders would vociferously disagree).
That’s clearly not the case when it comes to Nintendo’s situation, where its latest games are routinely appearing online ahead of release, for emulators that already out-perform the console itself. Switch emulators can run games in 4K, for instance.
It also makes life pretty miserable for those who are looking forward to a game’s release, as the internet quickly fills up with significant spoilers. For Tears of the Kingdom, it became a case of unplugging your router for a couple of weeks, in order not to find out every detail of the game ahead of launch. And now for those looking forward to all the surprises Super Mario Bros. Wonder has to offer, you might want to drop your phone in a well until Friday.
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