Assuming this is a real leak, I think these two costumes being leaked may have been more deliberate than it appears on the surface. When you're a leaker, you're always at risk of getting caught and subsequently fired. This is doubly true if you're leaking high profile releases or important content in general such as a DLC fighter for Smash. As such, it's best to keep as low a profile as you possibly can, lest you find yourself on the receiving end of a legal prostate exam courtesy of Nintendo.
So going back to Our Guy, he has info he really wants to get out there, but he can't just leak it outright because knows damn well what would happen to him and his career if he were to be caught leak one of the DLC fighters, and he just doesn't want to deal with that kind of stuff. But what if... he instead leaked something
else in order to disguise what he was
actually leaking? Ho ho ho...
delighfully devilish, Our Guy! So he goes and does just that: he leaks a Mallow and Cacodemon hat and nothing else.
This seems very ho-hum to most. I mean, they're just some dumb hats, literally the least exciting thing for most people both casual and hardcore. But while they look rather simple on the surface, the implications of their existence will get people's noggins joggin' something fierce. "Why is there only a Mallow hat? WHERE THE **** IS THE GENO COSTUME?!" Without directly showing it, you've already told people what you wanted to tell them. Of course, you may be wondering "Well, iff this
is real, then why didn't Nintendo take action to supress this like they did with Sword & Shield leaks or other Smash leaks in the past?". Well let me ask you point blank: What
could Nintendo do about it?
Nintendo's goal in situations like this is not only to prevent leaks, but to also minimize the damage those leaks cause them as much as possible. Whether real or fake, them responding to this publically is a terrible idea.
- If this is real, and they were to strike it down anywhere it popped up, they'd basically be confirming that it was a legit leak, because why else would they be taking it down so intently?
- If this is fake, and they were to strike it down anywhere it popped up, they'd still lead people into believing it was real, thus setting people's expectations in ways that they would rather not, sort of like what happened with the Grinch Hoax only by their own hand.
Coversely, them just ignoring this is easily the best course of action they could take.
- Unlike the ESRB Leak or Ultimate being leaked two weeks before it's release, it has just enough plasuable deniability to be able to ignore it because... well, it's just a couple of dumb hats, who cares? It's not like it couldn't be handwaved away as a fake. So what if a few random conspiracy nuts on some random Smash-centric image board catch on? Most people don't care, so it's no big deal.
- Regardless if it's real or fake, it'll avoid causing the Streisand Effect, making people eventually stop talking about it, which is what they want. If it's real, then everyone will only realize it was an actual leak after the fact, at which point it won't matter. This is basically what happened with the Ken Leak. If it's fake, nobody will be getting their hopes up over nothing.
So it'd make a ton of sense in a weird way for Our Guy to do this: It allows him to leak sensitive information for Smash whilst also having just enough plausable deniability to not attract too much attention and seriously jeopardize his livelihood, because while we're so used to leakers or insiders having a cult of personality, leaking information, at it's core, isn't about being flashy, it's about sending a message.
I don't expect anyone to agree with this theory of mine, because it
is rather farfetch'd and silly given he's already done quite a lot to ensure sure this doesn't come back on him, such as posting this stuff anonymously to 4chan and not acting like an attention *****, but it's certainly fun to think about. And if you don't think so... well,
I had fun with it at least.
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