The Tears of the Kingdom Switch console leak may be real after all

It’s in the fine print

The rumored Zelda Tears of the Kingdom console didn’t show up during the February Nintendo Direct, but one observant fan found a clue that it’s real after all. Nintendo showcased the Breath of the Wild sequel’s latest trailer and opened pre-orders for the open-world game, including its chonky digital version and its collector’s edition, and there’s a tiny detail in the collector’s edition that suggests the late 2022 console leak is accurate after all.

The leak included images of a Joy-Con pair themed after Link’s strange corruption, and at the bottom of the left Joy-Con was a small crest that looked like a variation of the Hyrule crest with a scaly egg-shaped object in the center. The same image featured prominently in gold on the center of the otherwise all-white Switch dock.

Nintendeals zoomed in on the pin box that comes with the TotK collector’s edition, and lo and behold, the box has the same crest on it. 

Rumored Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED Joy-Con

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Pin case featured in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Collector's Edition pic.twitter.com/ZMXebhxRhR

— Nintendeal (@Nintendeal) February 9, 2023

This is the first time that crest has appeared in official marketing, which lends a fair bit of credence to the earlier console leaks. Unless the leaker somehow got wind of Nintendo’s marketing plans and threw together a detailed fake Switch for reasons known only to themselves, then it seems pretty likely the console is legitimate.

While Nintendo has released far fewer special edition Switch consoles than they did 3DS systems, that trend started changing in 2022. The Big N launched a Splatoon 3-themed console in the summer and then a Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Switch shortly before the monster-catching games released. Neither included the game itself, though, so if the Tears of the Kingdom Switch is real, you can expect to shell out the full $70 asking price for the game too.