A hyper-passionate fan base. A notoriously secretive industry. And social media algorithms that encourage people to follow their worst impulses for 15 minutes of fame. It’s a volatile cocktailand one that might explain why a notorious leaker who went by the name Midori, lied about being a Japanese woman, when in fact he was a disgraced leaker known as MysticDistance from many years ago.
My apologies if this hasn’t all been fully scanned for you. Let’s rewind for a moment. Heading into the Summer Game Fest and non-E3 2024 season, where rumors are swirling about the status of several games, whether they will be shown and what it means if we don’t hear about them, the Twitter account MbKKssTBhz5– who went by Midori – posted all kinds of things with just enough accurate hits to make everyone take them seriously.
Midori had built a reputation for being legit after leaking things like Persona 5 Tactics DLC, Persona 3 remake‘The Answer’ DLCand a Sonic battle against the royal party game. But recently the story started branching out into much bolder claims about Kingdom hearts 4 still are several years off to Geoff Keighley confirmed it wouldn’t be at Summer Game Fest, nor would code names for several secret Nintendo projects, including the following Splatoon game. “Watching Midori post Nintendo leaks is like watching Icarus get closer to the sun,” wrote one person in a tweet that exploded early this month.
But not only did Midori post a lot of apparent inside information about upcoming video game releases from Japanese publishers, the account also built a persona of a female Japanese leaker who catered to a seemingly predominantly male American audience, one who ran a Discord and wrote in broken English. This was enough for that some fans are obsessed with Japanese games to develop a parasocial relationship with Midori, to the point where they tried to calculate her age and asked her for her number.
“Thanks for the friend requests,” Midori posted last October. “But I have a boyfriend, so I don’t want to date right now. You can date Persona games, so you can do that instead. I hope you find a cool girlfriend soon.” Adding to the mystery surrounding Midori, the character often spoke about leaving the leaky video game world altogether, before eventually returning, most recently on Monday of this week.
“It’s just stressful to keep going because of conspiracies,” Midori says wrote at the time. “So I feel uncomfortable now. I think it’s good to stop here.” The timing also happened to coincide with several incorrect predictions about Square Enix games appearing at the Xbox showcase Visions of Mana will not be coming to PlayStation 4 (the publisher confirmed earlier today that this was the case).
Now it turns out that the only real conspiracy was that Midori was a mysterious new female leaker from Japan, and apparently not a white man. Persona Leaker formerly known as MysticDistance. “The rumors about my identity that have spread lately and will continue to spread lately are correct information,” he says posted on June 13. “It’s only ironic that I’m confirming information that will almost certainly end the long journey this story has taken.”
The confession was a response to a anonymous document they go around accusing MysticDistance of falsifying their new identity and relying on old or incomplete sources to spread new, unsubstantiated rumors. The speaker has been criticized on social media for embracing racist caricatures to pretend to be someone he is not.
“The Midori persona as it is may not be a real person, but it is, in my opinion, an accurate representation of a real person, albeit in a particularly strange way that I would rather not have used,” MysticDistance wrote in response. “But it was never used to manipulate anyone or to appear more credible.” He denied that the leaks came from old presentations and not current sources, and said the new account “liberated” him to embrace Sega and Atlus’ leak fan culture in a way that his old reputation as MysticDistance did not.
“I will not tell anyone what to feel or what I think they should do in this situation. That’s not my place,” he wrote. “I know there are people reading this post who feel betrayed. I will not invalidate your feelings or decision to walk away or express your feelings.” MysticDistance also claimed that its existing leaks will still prove to be accurate. “Over the coming months and years, more and more of the unannounced information I have posted will be revealed,” he continued. “Of course, some plans are likely to change as well. I hope everyone is excited about what they can expect from Atlus and Sega in the future.”
Midori is just the latest installment in a video game leak culture saga that continues to go off the rails. As gaming companies pull back even further from early trailers and reveals, and fandoms for the most popular games become even more desperate for crumbs of new information, Several leaks have attempted to fill the gap, with varying degrees of success. In part, that’s because business plans can be complex and constantly evolving. It may also have to do with the fact that many supposed leakers get one piece of good information, and then can’t help themselves to parlay it into an entire Identity and Discord community. Midori did indeed fly too close to the sun, and now his wings have melted, at least until another one of his older random predictions proves correct.
Midori, also known as MysticDistance, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.