Game Freak Reveals Major Data Breach As Pokemon Leaks Go Viral

❘ published: 2024-10-13T14:27:59

Game Freak issued a statement confirming that it suffered a data breach in August 2024 just days before a massive leak of company assets on October 12.

The document, originally published in Japanese and translated into English, reads: “In connection with a third party’s unauthorized access to our server in August 2024, it was found that personal information of our employees was leaked , etc.”.

It confirmed that 2,606 instances of “personal information” were compromised, including names and email addresses. The company also noted that in response to the breach, it would contact “the applicable employees individually.”

“For those who cannot contact us individually due to retirement, etc., we will inform you in this announcement,” the letter continued, adding, “We will set up an inquiry window on this matter and respond.”

In the list of measures to prevent a recurrence, Game Freak stated that it had “already carried out the reconstruction and re-inspection of the server” and that it would “endeavour to prevent a recurrence by further strengthening security measures”.

The Pokemon Company

The October 12 leak included details about the tenth generation of Pokemon and the Switch 2.

It’s worth noting that the original letter is dated October 10, two days before the leaks began circulating. In addition to source code for older games in the Pokemon franchise being leaked online, details about Gen 10 and Nintendo’s upcoming successor to the Switch were included.

Game Freak’s statement made no mention of commercial assets or intellectual property, so it’s not immediately clear if the August breach and the October 12 leaks are connected, or if the latter comes from ‘an entirely different source.

Neither Switch 2 nor the tenth generation of Pokemon have been officially revealed. The next generation of Nintendo hardware is expected to arrive sometime in 2025, while the only known Pokémon title in development is Legends ZA. The latter is a spin-off of the core RPG series and a follow-up to 2022’s Legends Arceus.