It’s only a week until the game’s release, but it looks like some people already have Bayonetta 3 in their hands, and spoilers are inevitably spreading.

The long-awaited Bayonetta 3 is coming out next week, and as is a tradition in the video game industry, spoilers are doing their best to spoil the day. First announced during The Game Awards 2017, Bayonetta 3 arrives just over eight years after the release of the 2014 sequel and will soon end several painful years of waiting.

Bayonetta 3 will be the most extensive title of the series so far; in the trailers and first impressions, significant improvements of the previous mechanics have already appeared. PlatinumGames has confirmed the return of much-loved features, including Witch Time, the player’s ability to increase their speed, which is represented by the slowing down of time in the game. A recent trailer revealed the involvement of several Bayonettas, though Platinum remains tight-lipped about story details. These efforts are being harmed by spoilers circulating on the Internet following copies of Bayonetta 3 being distributed.

A thread devoted to spoilers appeared on the Bayonetta 3 subreddit, authored by u/-Joozhuah-, who noted that since copies of the game are now apparently in circulation, other threads are effectively locked down. Outside of the affected thread, spoilers will face a ban that cannot be reversed until at least 7 days after Bayonetta 3’s release, and the ban is expected to be lifted “around November 10th.” The strict crackdown comes after several videos containing significant portions of the game were uploaded to YouTube but have since been removed by Nintendo.

Leaks are unfortunately ubiquitous in the video game industry, whether it’s unannounced titles, narrative details, or in-development footage. Rockstar Games recently fell victim to an unprecedented hack that saw around 90 Grand Theft Auto 6 video clips uploaded to GTAForums, showcasing the currently unfinished state of the game, which is still years away from release. It wasn’t until days later that TheRealInsider, whose Twitter account leaked the soon-to-be-announced Assassin’s Creed projects, was actually YouTuber DanAllenGaming, who was simply entrusted with confidential information and later breached non-disclosure agreements via an anonymous profile.

Bayonetta 3 suffered from potential spoilers and was recently mired in controversy over claims made by former Bayonetta voice actress Helena Taylor, who claimed she was only offered $4,000 to reprise her role as the much-loved title character. Considering the amount to be an insult, he claimed that Taylor was subsequently replaced with Jennifer Hale, a well-known voice actress for video game franchises. However, recent news contradicts Taylor’s claim: the quoted value was reportedly for each session, which would have been 5, and PlatinumGames has since issued a statement standing behind Hale.

Source: GameRant