Nintendo Furious Over Switch 2 Leaks Revealing Zelda, Star Fox Plans

Kit Ellis spent 13 years helping Nintendo turn game announcements into cultural moments, the kind of staged surprise the company has elevated to an art form. So when Nintendo leaker NateTheHate published what amounted to a near-complete Switch 2 release calendar last week, Ellis, now co-host of the Kit & Krysta podcast, had a clear read on the internal temperature.

"I can promise you that Nintendo is absolutely furious," he said on social media alongside a video breaking down the scope of the disclosure.

The leak was notable not just for what it contained but for its span. NateTheHate, whom Ellis credited with "a very accurate track record for a really long time now," reportedly detailed Nintendo's Switch 2 lineup through Christmas 2026 and into 2027. The headline entry: a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, allegedly Nintendo's anchor holiday 2026 title, displacing the next 3D Mario, which per the leak won't arrive until 2027, nearly a decade after Super Mario Odyssey.

The summer slate reportedly includes a new Star Fox game, a fresh Switch Sports title, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, Splatoon Raiders, and Rhythm Heaven: Groove, plus Switch 2 Editions of Pikmin 4 and Xenoblade 2. Separate from NateTheHate's disclosures, multiple game ratings boards also published listings suggesting Capcom's Devil May Cry 5, Hell is Us, and Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival are bound for Nintendo's system.

Ellis was direct about why this leak represented something categorically different. "This isn't just somebody cryptically tweeting out a few things 24 hours before a Nintendo Direct," he said. "This is somebody who has laid out their entire lineup for the rest of this year and part of next years." The disclosures effectively mapped out Nintendo's full launch calendar for the next 12 months and beyond, a level of simultaneous exposure the company has rarely, if ever, faced.

The implications run deeper than spoiled announcements. Nintendo's marketing model depends on controlled surprise, from staggered reveal cadences to tightly held partner embargoes. "For a company like Nintendo whose approach to marketing is propped up by the element of surprise, it's a big problem," Ellis said. "Nintendo has a huge problem with leaks they don't seem to be able to fix." When a holiday title as significant as an Ocarina of Time remake gets named publicly months ahead of any announcement, the marketing, localization, and partner-relations work built around that reveal is effectively scrambled. NDAs with third-party publishers carry real legal weight, and a ratings board filing can undo months of embargo management in an afternoon.

Ellis signaled that Nintendo's response will go beyond frustration. "This is going to become a major priority going forward," he said, placing the company in what he described as uncharted territory.

What that priority looks like in practice is an internal pipeline question: who gets information, when, and under what conditions. Ellis noted that for employees trying to avoid the story entirely, "it's all over the place," a signal that containment is already off the table. For a company that treats its release calendar as among its most sensitive operational assets, the leak is the kind of event that triggers hard reviews of how confidential launch information flows from development teams outward to launch partners, regional offices, and beyond.