Former Nintendo of America marketing leads Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang have shared remarkable behind-the-scenes details about just how tightly the initial reveal of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was controlled – calling it a level of secrecy unprecedented in their careers.
A Disclosure List in the Single Digits
Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang are former Nintendo of America PR and marketing leads who co-hosted the long-running web series Nintendo Minute before leaving the company in January 2022. After departing Nintendo, the pair launched The Kit & Krysta Podcast in February 2022.
In a recent episode of that podcast, the duo discussed the biggest secrets they had to keep during their time at Nintendo. According to Ellis, the very first reveal of Tears of the Kingdom had “a higher level of security than anything else I’d certainly been a part of,” and he claims that fewer than ten people at Nintendo of America were on the disclosure list – not even his boss was privy to the reveal, and only one person in legal was approved to look at the materials.
Ellis named Doug Bowser, then-president of Nintendo of America, as one of the few in the loop – and he was chosen partly because of his prior role on Breath of the Wild. His reasoning for being selected: “The team trusts you.”
For many Nintendo employees, including Krysta Yang, their first time finding out about the sequel came when they watched the Nintendo Direct stream live together – even though Yang had already seen the rest of the presentation in advance, the trailer’s appearance at the end came as a complete surprise. “We popped off,” Yang recalled. “That was the first time I’ve had a surprise at Nintendo in all of my, at that point, 12 years or something… It was crazy.” The pair noted it was the first and perhaps only time Nintendo had kept a secret from so many staff members this close to a reveal.
One Person Doing Every Team’s Job
That tight-knit security meant Ellis was extremely hands-on with the announcement, handling the jobs of various different teams in complete secrecy. Normally, Ellis oversaw the social media team rather than writing copy himself – but with the rest of the team kept in the dark, that changed entirely.
“I had to do all of these teams’ jobs in secret, and when this [the reveal] happens, feed them this thing and tell them what to do with it,” Ellis explained. He wrote all the copy for Nintendo’s channels himself and then, at the moment of reveal, handed it off with strict instructions not to ask questions.
An Untitled Teaser That Still Shook the World
Nintendo announced Tears of the Kingdom via a teaser at E3 2019, before its full reveal at E3 2021. The roughly one-minute teaser offered a brief glimpse of Zelda and Link traveling through an ancient cavern, with no title given – just a vague confirmation that a Breath of the Wild sequel was in development.
Despite revealing so little, the secrecy held remarkably well. There were some odd gameplay leaks before the full 2022 reveal, but for the most part the project remained iron-clad – not even the game’s name leaked. That turned out to be fortunate for Nintendo, as a planned announcement was reportedly delayed following the death of Queen Elizabeth II – not an ideal moment to unveil a title named Tears of the Kingdom.
The title Tears of the Kingdom and a release date of May 12, 2023 were finally confirmed in a Nintendo Direct in September 2022. The game launched to critical acclaim on that date, selling over 10 million copies within three days and reaching 22.40 million copies by December 2025, making it the Switch’s eighth-bestselling game.
Tears of the Kingdom was not the only secret Ellis and Yang discussed – the reveals of Metroid Dread and Joker’s inclusion in Super Smash Bros. at The Game Awards were also cited as particularly intense secrets to keep.
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