This week, the rumor mill for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s remake is back in full swing, as fans think they know when pre-orders will go live and when we’ll learn the release date. In reality, the source of the leak isn’t that reliable, and the whole situation speaks to how desperate people are for more information about the game.
Earlier this week, Reddit user Naive_Associate_15 and X user NintendoBu found that if you searched for the remake at GameStop through Google, it appeared to show a pre-order start date of Aug. 4. From there, speculation went wild across Reddit, YouTube, and X, believing that this leak was accurate and that we’d imminently learn more about when we’d be able to pre-order it.
Nintendo has not commented on this leak at all, and in reality, the Google Search cache might not have been entirely accurate. Nate the Hate, the game industry insider who leaked this remake before it was revealed, explained as much on X shortly after this rumor started to gain traction. As he points out, it’s quite likely Google pulled information from another game coming out that day, like Game Freak’s Beast of Reincarnation, and displayed it for the wrong game.
Polygon was unable to replicate what was initially spotted, so it appears GameStop has sorted out whatever issue caused that Aug. 4 date to appear in the first place. Generally, I’m also quite wary that this rumor has any validity at all, as post-AI Google Search is much less reliable. We’re more likely to learn pre-order and release date information directly from Nintendo itself rather than a third-party retailer.
Ultimately, the discourse around these rumors just reinforces how little we truly know about the game. The announcement trailer barely showed anything and didn’t confirm a specific release date, pre-order date, or price, so fans are now eagerly seeking unrevealed information from unreliable sources. The leak and rumor culture around video games is more rampant than ever, so companies like Nintendo should be more aware of the fervor they’re causing when they announce a game but don’t show much of it.
Even though the Aug. 4 pre-order date probably isn’t true, I certainly hope Nintendo finally decides to show off more of this The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake sooner rather than later. It is slated to be released exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2 by the end of 2026.