Tears of the Kingdom had a "higher level of security" than any other Nintendo game.

In a new YouTube video, former Nintendo employees Kit & Krysta discuss the “biggest secrets” Nintendo has to keep, and surprisingly, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's reveal was the most closely guarded.

Announced at E3, there wasn't much to show. The one-minute teaser offered a brief glimpse at Zelda and Link traveling through an ancient cave, as swirling green magic written in ancient runes flowed through a mummified corpse surrounded by malice, all while Hyrule Castle rose from the ground. We didn't even get a title, just a vague promise that a Breath of the Wild sequel was in development.

However, according to former senior public relations manager Kit Ellis, the first disclosure “certainly had a higher level of security than anything else I've been a part of.”

Fewer than ten people knew about the state's tears

Kit claimed that “fewer than ten people” at Nintendo were on the disclosure list—not even his boss was privy to the disclosure, and only one person was legally approved to see the materials.

“It's me, like a couple of Japan contact people, Doug Bowser – I'm not kidding,” he explained. “And the reason I chose to get involved was because I was at the helm of Breath of the Wild. 'We're starting this new game. We don't know — who knows how we're going to handle it? It's years away, but you'll do it as an extension of your job because the team trusts you.'

That tight-knit security meant that Kit was extremely hands-on with the announcement, handling the work of various different teams in complete secrecy. “For example, the social team I was overseeing at the time, I wasn't the one cranking out every piece of copy,” Kitt said. “In this case, I did. So I had to write all the copy for all the channels and stuff. And when it's finished, I send it — 'Hey Brad! Here you go. Don't ask me what this is. Post it.'

There were the odd gameplay leak before the full 2022 reveal, but for the most part, the game was ironclad. The name has not been leaked. Which, in hindsight, is very fortunate for Nintendo, considering the announcement was delayed until after the death of Queen Elizabeth – not the best time to reveal a title like Tears of the Kingdom.