A massive amount of Pokemon-related information has been released online in a hack targeting the series’ developer Game Freak, and said studio has now confirmed the hack and its cause.
In a statement issued by Game Freak yesterday, the developer said (according to a translation by ResetEra user Axe) that the hack was due to “unauthorized access to our server by a third party in August 2024”.
The leak, which is being referred to online as the “Teraleak”, contains images and information pertaining to the development of several Pokemon games, including what appear to be beta development sprites, work-in-progress screenshots, and more.
Info about upcoming Pokemon games, including the (perhaps totally unsurprising) fact that the next Pokemon game is being developed for the Switch’s upcoming successor, has also been leaked.
It’s not all fun and information about games, though. Game Freak has confirmed that the personal information of more than 2,600 employees, including names and company email addresses, was also included in the leak.
The studio says that it has “already rebuilt and inspected the server” in order to prevent a similar hack from occurring again, and that it intends to further strengthen its security measures to “prevent recurrence”.
Of course, the developer is cagey about exactly what caused the unauthorized access to its server. Game Freak also technically hasn’t confirmed any of the Pokemon-related information contained within the leak, but it’s unlikely that any kind of official confirmation on this front will be forthcoming.
As well as the aforementioned work-in-progress sprites and screenshots, the leak also apparently contains info about cut content across some of the games, info relating to upcoming projects, and even some information about new Pokemon movies and streaming shows.
Leaker accounts and Pokemon news sources are still sifting through what is probably going to turn out to be an ungodly amount of data, so it’s likely more will be discovered in the coming days as well. One thing’s pretty much for sure, though: Nintendo’s not going to be happy about this.
