We're just over a week away from the launch of the Switch 2, and images have already emerged of the consoles appearing in stores – potentially the sign of leaks to come. Anyone considering running the risk of leaking things for the sake of internet fame ought to be careful, though, as two former Nintendo marketing leads have been discussing just how good the company is at tracking leakers down.
Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang – who previously hosted the official Nintendo Minute series and respectively served as Nintendo of America's director of social media marketing and original content, and senior manager of creator relations and original content before leaving in 2022 – have been discussing the potential of Switch 2 leaks in a new video on their YouTube channel (below).
Ellis notes that before the Switch 1's launch, a "big video" surfaced of someone with the console showing off its menu, and it was "like code red to find out what happened."
Elaborating on this, Ellis says that Nintendo "can get pretty precise" when it comes to "finding where this is, who this is, like what store this is." He continues: "It was actually really surprising for me to see that, like, 'Oh! You actually can track this.' Like, again, these things get scanned and identified, and there are so many little identifiers that you might not even think of, like they will find who it is, but the fact that the leak has happened…"
"It's almost too late," Yang chimes in. "Too little, too late." She adds that even if a person or store receives some kind of consequence from Nintendo, ultimately, "it doesn't walk back the information that's already been put out there" from the leak.
Since Ellis and Yang posted their latest video, footage began circulating of someone "unboxing" a Switch 2 – which actually just amounted to seven whole seconds of someone lifting the box's lid. While it seemed like bigger leaks could follow from this, a bit like the Switch 1 menu leak discussed by Ellis and Yang, the person behind the clip claimed that the console isn't functional without an update, anyway.
If that's true, it could help cut down on the sort of leaks we've seen in the past, but with barely a week to go, we'll just have to watch this space to see if anything gets out earlier than Nintended.
If you're keeping up with the latest Nintendo Switch 2 news, be sure to check out our list of upcoming Switch 2 games, too.
