GameStop Employee Reportedly Fired For Leaking Zelda-Themed Switch

A GameStop employee was reportedly fired after posting about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch OLED system before its announcement. The now-former employee leaked details of the special edition system just before Nintendo officially announced it on March 28.

According to a Kotaku report, the now-former employee, Mike (who requested the publication not use his last name), was initially suspended for leaking the Zelda Switch early, before being terminated. When Mike went to work on April 11, he was terminated by the store manager who he claims said "off the record" that Nintendo requested the leaker be fired.

Mike said he was unaware that leaking the system on social media was against GameStop's policies and that he was simply trying to give the community a notice to allow people to preorder the system as soon as it went live. Historically, preordering certain special edition items at GameStop has caused problems for customers due to allocation constraints and other issues.

On April 11, Mike took to Reddit to share that he'd been fired, and said, "Hopefully, all of you were able to get your switch preorders in as now I will not be able to get mine."

GameSpot has reached out to Nintendo for comment; neither Nintendo nor GameStop has yet to address the situation.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launches on May 12, while the special-edition Switch OLED system releases on April 28. A final trailer has now been released, with takeaways including newfound hope for traditional dungeons and hot Ganondorf (whom we think is 10 feet tall).