NEO: The World Ends With You is a sequel over a decade in the making. Fans of the original RPG have remained a small but incredibly loyal community, hopeful but without unhealthy expectations about what might be next for The World Ends With You. Since its announcement, those fans have anxiously awaited NEO: The World Ends With You's launch on July 27. It seems, however, their patience may have been rewarded earlier than expected.
It appears that NEO: The World Ends With You for the Nintendo Switch has leaked early, unlocking for those who purchased the game in a specific way. That means NEO: The World Ends With You is fully playable today, July 17, ten days earlier than NEO: TWEWY's release date. As such, fans should probably be wary of spoilers on social media up through launch.
Here is how the leak works. Those who pre-ordered a physical copy of NEO: The World Ends With You through the official Square Enix store received a receipt. This receipt included a code that, for all intents and purposes, unlocks a full copy of NEO: The World Ends With You on Nintendo Switch. Those who used the code were able to download the full game, with many already having sunk hours into the game.
Reports since have indicated that Square Enix is no longer sending out these codes with purchases of NEO: The World Ends With You, but it was live for some six or more hours after it was first discovered. It is unclear how many people were able to claim a copy of the action-RPG, as well as download the game afterward, but it seems as if it was a lot. As far as pre-launch leaks go, this is one of the oddest and largest to ever come from an official source.
To be clear, the leak came only from the Square Enix storefront in North America. No other storefronts gave out full copies of the game that were already unlocked. There were rumors that Amazon was also giving out similar codes, but those codes kept the game locked. Amazon's codes only unlocked pre-loading, not the game. Further, the proper Square Enix leak is no longer available.
Obviously, with some fans waiting a very long time wto experience NEO: The World Ends With You, this isn't a great thing to have happened. NEO: TWEWY spoilers are going to ruin the experience for some, which is too many, and the game's launch performance could be hurt as a result. Waiting an extra ten days would have been preferable to a leak, especially for a sequel so many have been waiting for for so long.
NEO: The World Ends With You releases July 27 on PS4 and Switch.