A Nintendo employee's kid was behind the Smash Bros. 3DS roster leaks

You might remember the big Smash Bros. 3DS leaks from back in 2014, which showcased a number of characters for the game before Nintendo announced them. There was speculation at first as to whether the leaks were legit, but with Nintendo of America swooping in with a copyright claim on videos and pictures shortly after, fans got all the confirmation they needed.

While the leaks are a part of Nintendo history now, one tidbit that went undiscovered was just who let the information loose. Now, thanks to some serious detective work from Did You Know Gaming, we have an answer as to who caused all the trouble.

It’s not every day that something leaks from Nintendo, and it’s even crazier to have information from Smash Bros. get out to the public earlier than planned. Nintendo and Masahiro Sakurai are incredibly tight-lipped about Smash Bros. information, making the leak all the more surprising when it happened. Now we know that one of Nintendo’s own employees is to blame for the info drop, and it all stems from an ESRB interaction.

Nintendo, just like any other game company, has to get their games rated by the ESRB for launch. This includes sending the ESRB videos of the game prior to launch, which is just what Nintendo did. Apparently the ESRB runs a very tight ship, as they kept the videos safe and secure. It turns out the Nintendo of America employee who sent the videos off to the ESRB happened to be harboring a kid who was dying to know more about the next Smash Bros. game.

The child of this unnamed NoA employee got access to the Smash Bros. 3DS footage and videos and couldn’t help themselves, spreading it around to their friends. Of course, one of those friends couldn’t keep the information a secret, deciding to share the same media over on 4Chan. As you can guess, that move to 4Chan was the kiss of death, and the information made its way onto the worldwide web shortly after.

Once Nintendo found out who was behind the leak, they ended up firing the employee. We can only imagine what the conversations were like between that employee and their kid once the termination went down!