Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was so secret fewer than 10 Nintendo of America staff knew before E3 2019

Former Nintendo of America PR leads Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang have revealed that Tears of the Kingdom had a tighter security blanket than any other Nintendo project they worked on — fewer than 10 people at Nintendo of America knew the game existed before its surprise reveal at E3 2019. Most Nintendo employees found out about it the same moment the rest of the world did.

Ellis, who was director of social media marketing and original content at the time, was brought into the loop because of his prior PR and marketing work on Breath of the Wild. The inner circle at NoA was tiny: a couple of Japan liaison staff, then-Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser, and Ellis himself. His own boss was not told. That secrecy created a logistical headache — Ellis had to quietly do the work of multiple teams without any of them knowing why. "I had a ton to do. There was this big communications team, like an E3 machine, cranking out materials," he said. "It became clear I have to do these different teams' jobs in secret, and when this happens, feed them this thing and tell them what to do with it." Yang recalled standing next to Ellis's boss during the announcement — and watching him react with the same shock as everyone else in the room. Nintendo staff reportedly celebrated loudly when the teaser dropped.

Tears of the Kingdom launched on Switch in 2023 to widespread critical acclaim, praised for how aggressively it expanded on Breath of the Wild's open-world systems. Both games were later updated for Switch 2. The Zelda series has stayed busy since: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, a prequel to Tears of the Kingdom, arrived last year, and a full remake of Ocarina of Time is coming to Switch 2 — though unlike Tears of the Kingdom, that one leaked well before any official announcement.

Ellis and Yang left Nintendo in 2022 and have been sharing behind-the-scenes stories on their Kit & Krysta YouTube channel ever since. The contrast with today's leak-heavy environment is hard to miss — a genuine, unspoiled E3 surprise of that scale feels almost impossible now.