UPDATE: Company confirms hack, employee data breached.
Image credit: The Pokémon Company
UPDATE 11.44am UK: Game Freak has acknowledged it was hacked in August, in a Japanese-language statement posted to its website, dated 10th October.
The company apologised that personal information about its employees was obtained via “unauthorised access” to its servers “by a third party” in August 2024.
The personal information is said to include full names and contact information for over 2500 past and present employees, including contracters.
Game Freak says it has since secured the server and is strengthening its security measures.
Original story follows.
ORIGINAL STORY 9.30am UK: Pokémon developer Game Freak is reeling from an unprecedented “gigaleak” of “significant internal data” of Pokémon info that reportedly includes source code for HeartGold/SoulSilver and the codename for Switch 2.
Pokémon insiders like CentroLeaks say the data contains “multiple gigabytes of info” – enough that it should be termed a “teraleak”, with details of cancelled and unannounced games such as a “Splatoon-like” battle-focused multiplayer developed in collaboration with ILCA.
It’s also thought that Game Freak is internally referring to Switch 2 with the codename “Ounce”.
There are also reports of a “trilogy live-action movie series”. Whilst two are based upon Detective Pikachu, one – called Game Boy – “aims to dig deep into the theme of Pokémon’s boundless potential, creating a story that highlights the importance of bonds, whether between friends or between Pokémon themselves”.
The complete plot to a Detective Pikachu sequel, The Great Detective Pikachu, is also included. It seems the movie was originally planned for release in 2024, but “it’s unclear if it was just delayed or cancelled”.
More astonishingly still, a document containing the alleged meeting notes from when The Pokémon Company “reflected on why Ash’s story in the anime needed to end” has also leaked.
For all of those just tuning in, we’re currently covering the Game Freak Teraleak.
Lots of source files and beta content for past Pokémon games are currently leaking, along with a few details on upcoming projects.
We expect more information to be uncovered in the coming hours… pic.twitter.com/KdoJ4G87Sb
— Centro LEAKS (@CentroLeaks) October 12, 2024
[Gigaleak]
I’m currently hearing that a significant amount of internal data from Game Freak is being leaked onto the Internet.
I don’t intend on looking at this data so I can’t confirm for myself, but I have heard it includes stuff like source code for HeartGold & SoulSilver.
— OatmealDome (@OatmealDome) October 12, 2024
“Lots of source files and beta content for past Pokémon games are currently leaking, along with a few details on upcoming projects,” Centro Leaks said on X/Twitter.
“We expect more information to be uncovered in the coming hours and days.”
Whilst we’ll refrain from sharing the images here, you don’t have to go far to find compilations of “all the sprites together”, PSD files from game logos, and “hundreds of concept arts and character sheets”.
Whilst there’s no way of concretely authenticating the enormous cache information that has been uncovered, the sheer number and amount of detail here reminds us of Rockstar’s GTA leak in 2022, with little doubt what has appeared online is authentic.
