Fans of the upcoming NEO: The World Ends With You have been excited for the game ever since its reveal last year. With this being an unexpected sequel to the critically acclaimed and dearly beloved The World Ends With You, the community has been feverishly hyped with the story continuing. However, some unfortunate errors on the behalf of Square Enix caused copies of the game to be leaked early. To prevent players from accessing the game further until the official release, Square Enix is revoking all digital licenses of the game.

These copies were all the result of an error on Square Enix's official store page last week regarding pre-orders of the game. Those who had pre-ordered a physical Switch copy of NEO: The World Ends With You through this storefront received a receipt and a digital code. This code was not meant to be included with the receipt, causing players to get early access to NEO: TWEWY in its entirety. Fans quickly took advantage of this leak to sink several hours into the game and explore it as much as they could. As a form of damage control, access to these early versions are now being revoked.

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This is to be expected, as earlier this week, screenshots and videos of NEO: TWEWY were being removed by copyright takedowns, presumably reported by Square Enix itself. These leaked posts from fans ranged from gameplay to major story spoilers, so an escalation of revoking digital licenses may not have surprised some fans. According to users at ResetEra, players who have tried accessing their early copies are no longer able to play them. Furthermore, they noted that Nintendo and Square Enix have removed the digital copies from their Nintendo accounts as well.

As the copies would be removed once a player's Switch has been connected to the internet, fans have tried to circumvent these digital copies from being revoked. Users either disconnected their console from the internet, deleted their Wi-Fi settings, or put the console into Airplane Mode to continue playing the game offline. Some users on the forum tried to cancel their incoming physical orders on Square Enix's website, but were refused as they have already been shipped. Square Enix taking action to revoke these licenses makes sense, as not only was the company leaking the game early, but giving fans a copy of the game for free by complete accident alongside the copy that fans have paid for.

Some fans who already have lost access to these digital copies won't have to worry too much, as save data on the Nintendo Switch can easily be carried over from the digital version to their physical copy. Even if fans had tons of playtime in NEO: The World Ends With You through a leaked copy, they'll have to wait alongside other fans who are also anxiously awaiting this game.

NEO: The World Ends With You releases July 27 on PS4 and Switch.

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Source: ResetEra