Full copies of Super Smash Bros. Online have leaked more than a week ahead of the game’s release, and it appears the leaks originated from a Nintendo Switch pirating community.
Scattered reports of gameplay and other details pertaining to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate appearing online surfaced over the weekend with Nintendo reportedly taking action against those who revealed early content. YouTube channels were struck down and copyright strikes that were said to be coming from Nintendo hit different content creators.
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As for the origins of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate leak that reportedly included the full game, Motherboard reported that the leak originated from the WarezNX Discord server. WarezNX is a Nintendo Switch pirating community with a Discord server invite linked on the SwitchPirates subreddit, though it appears that Discord link is now invalid with some people reporting that the Discord server has apparently been deleted, perhaps as a result of the leak. A WarezNX administrator known as JJB told Motherboard he didn’t agree with how early the new game leaked and decided to ban low-level Discord users from the server.
“Point of doing it was I did not agree with Smash leaking as early as it did,” JJB told Motherboard. “So I decided to remove the easiest source being the server.”
JJB added that as far as instances of Switch games being pirated go, “this is the biggest ever.”
Motherboard was also able to view private chat logs from within the pirating community that discussed the leak and a saw a piracy forum with links for where players could download the full game. Not all of those leaked products worked though with some copies of the game reportedly bricking Nintendo Switch consoles and rendering them unusable. At least one version of the game did appear to work, a copy of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that Motherboard’s sources said had supposedly originated from Mexico. To confirm the leaks are real, Motherboard said it was sent a video of a specific fighter and stage when requested.
Nintendo historically has taken a strong stance against piracy, so the response so far including the channel takedowns and copyright strikes is to be expected. On Nintendo’s sites, it’s outlined its views on video game piracy while detailing how piracy can harm game creators and how it feels about players using and distributing ROMs, a topic that’s led to litigation in the past.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is scheduled to release for the Nintendo Switch on December 7th.
