New details arise regarding Super Smash Bros. Ultimate ‘Grinch’ roster leak

Following yesterday’s possible leak concerning the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster, a number of new details have emerged.

First, Marina PLV (the company where the leak took place, allegedly) issued a statement on their Facebook page. Below is a roughly translated version of it:

“Rumors of privacy leak on the latest version of the super smash bros game report a link to our company. All these rumors only support one idea, journalism is not limited to searching google.
Indeed, the person involved in this “rumor”, if so, is no longer present in our company since November 2016., which has not put its linkedin profile up to date, some wanted to make a rapprochement with The Marina workshops that cannot exist.

Namco is a company we have worked with and with which we want to work again, this is not the case currently for the launch of super smash bros ultimate. These rumours are therefore discrediting our widely recognized professionalism, particularly with regard to our confidentiality commitments.
We are now contacting all these sites and namco / Nintendo to remove this false information and evaluate the judicial suites to be given.

The Marina Team.”

From there, LinkedIn profiles of the alleged leaker were found, placing him at Marina PLV until November 2016.

Since these marketing materials for the game would not exist then, sights have been set on the current company the alleged leaker works for, ACP-PLV.

As of this writing, there has been no evidence that ACP-PLV has or is working with Bandai Namco.

@NintendoActu went one step further and called the company, ACP-PLV, to ask if the leaker works there:

Hey! Indeed, the person in question doesn't work there anymore, but now works at another company in the same field. We called this company yesterday and can confirm this person is real and works there.

— Nintendo Actu (@NintendoActu) October 25, 2018

They were also able to contact the “leaker” through a source of their own. The “leaker” has stated that they are unaware of this event.

Journalist Liam Robertson was also able to contact him and tweeted out the following (note: we removed the individual’s name from the quote below):

“What I’m hearing now is that [REDACTED] (the artist who supposedly posted the Smash art) was contacted and denied having anything to do with this whole thing. So, it’s looking like the person responsible has been impersonating him.”

Outside of trying to pin down the leaker, fans have also been analyzing the clear and clean Battlefield artwork.

Vaanrose on Smashboards posted their findings in comparing the backdrop at E3 to the materials in the leak. There are a number of differences between the two, but it could also be argued that the backdrop has been changed and tweaked since June.

We won’t know for sure if the leaks are real until the game’s release in December, but for now, we will continue to follow the ongoing saga of the so-called “Grinch leak” in the Super Smash Bros. fandom.

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