GameStop employee trolls Twitter with fake Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leaks

An employee from GameStop went viral on social media after tweeting a picture that implied he had early access copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

The gaming community can feel complicated enough, even without the online platforms that often play host to it. From Facebook to Twitter, fans of video games share everything on the internet, from gaming news to opinionated pieces. More often than not, these posts attract the attention of fans, sparking an increase in the original poster’s online influence.

The nature of social media and content creators’ influence on it means that simple posts meant to troll or provide light fun often have much greater impact than intended. One GameStop employee’s Tweet regarding Tears of the Kingdom proves just that.

GameStop employee and Twitch streamer Deebeegeek thought that he would have some fun on Twitter by posting some innocent photos of empty game cases. He did not expect his Tweet to reach such a wide audience, nor the reactions from Zelda fans that came next.

Did Deebeegeek have early access Tears of the Kingdom copies?

Despite his initial mysterious Tweet, Deebeegeek never actually had access to a real copy of Tears of the Kingdom. He posted a picture of an empty game case with the Breath of the Wild sequel’s cover on it, simply telling fans to not “ask questions.”

As per usual with ambiguous Tweets, users went wild trying to decipher what the photo could possibly mean. Most took it to mean that Deebeegeek was already playing the game and had found some way to obtain it before everyone else.

He followed up on the initial post by sharing another picture in which he held four supposed copies of the game, writing that people should follow him “if they want one.” After this Tweet, Deebeegeek decided to go the extra mile by sharing a fake article screenshot.

This picture featured a non-existent Nintendo Life article describing in its headline how Deebeegeek released copies of Tears of the Kingdom early and was going to be sued by Nintendo. Unfortunately, most people who saw the Tweet only read the headline, therefore taking the article seriously despite it being a joke.

In a YouTube video explaining the entire mess, Deebeegeek admits that the copies he shared on Twitter were empty display cases from GameStop. As an employee at the store, he had access to them as they are used to advertise games prior to their release.

He also stated that the fake article from Nintendo Life was never meant to be taken seriously, and that he should have first checked with the author named in the joke screenshot before posting it publicly. Deebeegeek said that everything “was just from a place of love and entertainment” and that he only wanted to troll his fans a bit.

After apologizing to everyone he upset, including Nintendo Life, Deebeegeek took a moment to acknowledge how he never would have predicted his Tweet blowing up the way it did. He wrapped the video up by saying that it was proof of how hyped fans are to play Tears of the Kingdom, which drops on May 12.