Earlier today, future Pokemon leaks started appearing on the internet much in the way that Grand Theft Auto 6 and the recent Insomniac leaks started appearing, with people assuming that Pokemon developer Game Freak had been hacked.
Game Freak has now put out a statement (viewable here) which confirms that it was hacked in August with personal information of employees as well as a bunch of other information about Pokemon’s entire history and several details about future games have been confirmed as well within the leaked information.
Whilst we won’t show any of the images/videos here, IGN is reporting that within the leaks are several pieces of information about future Pokémon games including the codenames for two versions of the 10th generation Pokemon games (K and N) with these games apparently releasing on the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, which we learn is codenamed “Ounce”. It’s also said Pokemon Legend Z-A is set to release only on Nintendo Switch, but that might not mean a lot as we get into the Switch successor’s future announcement.
It’s also said that there is a Pokemon game codenamed Synapse, which is being co-developed with another studio and people are claiming that it is an MMO or at least a primarily online game. This would be a huge step for the Pokemon franchise, so it’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.
There’s also source code for a number of Pokemon games in the leak, 1000s upon 1000s of character art for games and the anime, as well as meeting notes for key decisions such as how many of the Pokemon game elements came to be and how Ash’s run in the anime came to an end as well.
GAMEFREAK’S STATEMENT ON THE HACKING
“Notice and apology regarding the leak of personal information due to unauthorized access
Game Freak Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Satoshi Tajiri, hereinafter referred to as “the Company”) has discovered that personal information of the Company’s employees and others was leaked in connection with unauthorized access to the Company’s servers by a third party in August 2024.
We sincerely apologize for the great inconvenience and concern caused to all concerned parties.
1. Leaked personal information
Personal data regarding the Company’s employees, etc.*
Items: Name, company email address
Number of cases: 2,606
*All Company employees, contracted workers (including former employees and former employees)
2. Response to those whose personal information has been confirmed to have been leaked
We are contacting the relevant employees individually.
For those who cannot be contacted individually due to retirement, etc., we will notify them in this announcement and set up a contact point for inquiries regarding this matter to respond to them.
3. Measures to prevent recurrence
We have already rebuilt and re-inspected the server, but we will work to prevent recurrence by further strengthening our security measures.
4. Inquiries regarding this matter
Inquiries from those affected by this issue can be made through the following contact point.”
