It was relatively easy for me to get one Tears of the Kingdom stream on Twitch hidden in the 300 or so channels that stream Breath of the Wild. The two games share the same art style, UI, and similar in-game locations, so it can be difficult to choose one Tears of the Kingdom stream of one Breath of the Wild one at a glance. I won’t post any spoilers or links (heh), but if you see a big red hand in the top left corner of the game screen, back off immediately.
In the stream I found, the chat was filled with messages begging the streamer to switch to something else or the channel would be taken offline. my cityThe report also included chat messages from Discord streams in which viewers posted a “copypasta” informing Nintendo lawyers who may be lurking that they were not affiliated with the streamer or approved of their actions ostensibly to protect against any legal action that Nintendo would undertake.
It looks like Twitch and Discord are taking action against early streams. my city reported that the Discord server running a Tears of the Kingdom stream was taken offline, while the Twitch stream I found was shut down a few minutes after discovering it. Excitement for the Breath of the Wild sequel is totally understandable, especially when you get something for everyone. But it seems silly for streamers to air that they’re playing a game that isn’t out yet, since at best it seems like a misguided desire to be first and, at worst, a blatant disregard for how aggressive Nintendo may be in defense of its IP.
Tears of the Kingdom comes out on May 12. It’s probably best to wait until then to play.