Summary
- The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom ROM was leaked online on September 21.
- Pirates have hence started playing the game via Switch emulators five days ahead of its official release.
- Tears of the Kingdom was also leaked in a similar fashion in 2023, which prompted a strong response from Nintendo that ended in a swift shutdown of two popular emulators.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has leaked online, with a playable ROM of the game appearing on multiple torrent aggregator sites in late September 2024. Pirates thus got their hands on Echoes of Wisdom nearly a week ahead of its official market debut.
Echoes of Wisdom is scheduled for release on September 26. The game itself is expected to be the final Switch-exclusive entry in The Legend of Zelda series.
Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom – Burning Questions Answered
Find answers to the most important questions fans are asking about The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.
Pirates Are Already Playing Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
And while many fans continue to wait for its release, some pirates have already started playing Echoes of Wisdom after its ROM appeared on various torrent aggregator websites. The playable dump of the game's files surfaced online on Saturday, September 21, five days ahead of its official release. This happened only a week after one individual already bragged about playing Echoes of Wisdom early and leaking some of its gameplay in the process.
Echoes of Wisdom ROM Leak Mirrors the Tears of the Kingdom One
History has thus repeated itself with Echoes of Wisdom, as the previous installment in the long-running franchise also ended up in the hands of pirates before hitting the store shelves. In that particular instance, early copies of Tears of the Kingdom appeared in the wild in late April 2023, with one of them eventually being bought by a person who proceeded to dump its files online on May 2, ten days ahead of the game's release.
The Tears of the Kingdom leak did not go unanswered, as it resulted in Nintendo shutting down two popular emulators, Yuzu and Citra. The former was forced to stop development after Nintendo accused it of facilitating piracy, claiming the emulator was used to play over a million illegal copies of Tears of the Kingdom. Meanwhile, the death of 3DS emulator Citra was collateral damage, which happened because it was founded by the same developers behind Yuzu. The fact that Yuzu's Patreon donations skyrocketed after Tears of the Kingdom leaked was another aggravating circumstance that likely didn't help its creators argue that they weren't benefitting from piracy. Yuzu developer Tropic Haze agreed to pay Nintendo $2.4 million in damages in order to settle the case back in March 2024.
Although Tropic Haze ended all Yuzu development long before the settlement was finalized, a different group forked its open-source code to launch Switch emulator Suyu, pronounced as "sue you," in a cheeky nod to its predecessor's fate. Suyu is one of the emulators that pirates are reportedly using to play the newly leaked copy of Echoes of Wisdom, along with Ryujinx. It remains to be seen whether this leak will prompt another emulator and piracy crackdown attempt by Nintendo.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 85 /100 Critics Rec: 93%
- Released
- September 26, 2024
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo, Grezzo
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Engine
- Havok
- Franchise
- The Legend of Zelda
WHERE TO PLAY
Save Hyrule—this time with the wisdom of Princess Zelda!
The people of Hyrule are being stolen away by strange rifts—and with a certain swordsman among the missing, it’s up to Princess Zelda to save her kingdom in the latest adventure in The Legend of Zelda™ series!
Team up with the ethereal creature Tri and use the Tri Rod to create “echoes,” which are imitations of things you find in the environment—then recreate those echoes whenever you like to solve puzzles and defeat enemies. Use echoes like water blocks to reach new heights, make bridges out of old beds, throw rocks at foes, or find your own combination of echoes to do things your way. You can even make echoes of monsters to fight at your side in combat!
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
