Game Freak Issues Statement on Massive Data Breach; Terabytes of Internal Pokemon Content Leaked

By: Water Pokémon Master · Posted Posted onOct 13, 2024 at 9:44 AM · 33 Comments

Game Freak is the latest victim of a data breach.

Yesterday, terabytes of stolen content was leaked online. Fans have dubbed it the “Teraleak.”

The content includes internal company discussions, beta Pokemon designs, early builds of games like HeartGold & SoulSilver, information on a Generation X game codenamed “Gaia,” and even the codename for the Switch 2.

Game Freak has issued an apology on their website. They state the data breach occurred in August 2024 and has resulted in 2,600 pieces of employee information leaking online, including names and phone numbers. They are attempting to contact impacted personnel.

Game Freak does not acknowledge the stolen content in their statement.

Nintendo also experienced a massive data breach in 2020. Beta builds of early Pokemon games leaking online, including Red & Green and Gold & Silver.

View thread (33 replies)
As much as I like to see beta/unreleased content like the stuff in this leak, it genuinely sucks that information about employees was included, that tells me that the intent behind it is more malicious than past leaks. I’ve also noticed that people are comparing this leak to the ones Insomniac Games and Capcom suffered a while back, the only difference is the above bit about the employee info being leaked in addition to beta/unreleased material and product road maps.

Well, if there was ever a time for GF and TPC to adapt their game announcements to match the “NEVER announce stuff too early, wait until it’s almost out the door” strategy that Nintendo’s mastered in then now’s the time.
Jdbeardsmith said:
This is all too wild - but there is so much info pouring out that its likely people are and will slip more fake things in with all the legitimate leaks and the waters are very muddy rn - I actually feel very sorry for gamefreak as this scramble will certainly not HELP their production timelines and decisions 😩
Click to expand...
Trying to pass off fake stuff in a leak is pretty standard fare, especially if it’s about an upcoming product.
 
Of course it's not that they don't care about the leaked info in terms of games and anime, but with this statement is clear they won't hold it against the employee that was the victim of the phishing scam, and they value more their employee's personal data than anything else.

It's a really unfortunate situation for them, because, what else can they really do? What's done is done, and I think the most crucial thing is anything related to future/unreleased projects. Who knows how this will impact release dates, or if they end up having to remove/add stuff to make something different from what has leaked.
 
This is pretty cool - leaks about future products usually help consumers make better decisions, while leaks about past products help with preservation, that these companies are rarely interested in doing.
From what I can see so far, early versions of Pokemon games, even as far as Gen 3, usually start as pretty ambitious, with coherent lore and unique ideas - then something, or someone, dumbs them down along the way.
 
tol89 said:
because it is not really a leak but more of an attack
Click to expand...
i know, looked more into it and it was done by a phising email by an employee, even so i've never really liked certain leaks and this just makes me hate it more since people's lives are in danger now
 
Is there a rule about no leaks on this website? I really don't want to get spoiled on things but I also want to keep looking at Pokémon stuff. I thought I'd at least have until the first proper trailer for Z-A but now may need to emergency dive off of Pokémon online communities? Also unfortunate it's a seemingly malicious leak as well.
 
Ilexon said:
Is there a rule about no leaks on this website? I really don't want to get spoiled on things but I also want to keep looking at Pokémon stuff. I thought I'd at least have until the first proper trailer for Z-A but now may need to emergency dive off of Pokémon online communities? Also unfortunate it's a seemingly malicious leak as well.
Click to expand...
it's definitely not getting talked about here, and the person responsible has stated they aren't doing anything for unreleased games, despite having a fair bit of material on them, until after they are no longer unreleased games.
 
Hella_TCG said:
leaking culture is so lame when it's leaking personal info and endangering people like why?
Click to expand...
As far as I was able to research, while the leak contained personal data, the hacker is not planning to release it at any point. It wasn't specifically targeted, it was part of the massive dump of poorly-defended data.
I was not able to found what specific "personal data" leaked. A regular employee shouldn't have access to anything beyond a simple personnel list, which is pretty much a public thing anyway. I'm not sure why it would be bundled up anywhere near development info, but I've seen worse screw-ups.
 
LOTTEN said:
it's definitely not getting talked about here, and the person responsible has stated they aren't doing anything for unreleased games, despite having a fair bit of material on them, until after they are no longer unreleased games.
Click to expand...
Ah so is there not actually any gen 10 and ZA information leaked outside of the codename? Just since someone earlier in this comments seemed to mention something that I'm assuming is a ZA leak. But thank you
 
Ilexon said:
Ah so is there not actually any gen 10 and ZA information leaked outside of the codename? Just since someone earlier in this comments seemed to mention something that I'm assuming is a ZA leak. But thank you
Click to expand...
The names and the region are suggested but it's not outright stated, though I've been busy going through the beta Pokemon from Gen 3 and 5. Some of these are fantastic
 
You must log in or register to reply here.