Game Freak, the developer behind the Pokémon games has confirmed that it experienced a massive data breach that impacted both current and ex-employees. The breach led to the circulation of thousands of confidential documents online including future projects and Pokémon source code.
“Game Freak Inc. …has discovered that personal information of our employees and others was leaked in connection with unauthorized access to our server by a third party in August 2024,” the company announced in a statement shared in Japanese.
“We would like to offer our deepest apologies for the great inconvenience and concern caused to all those involved”.
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Over two thousand names and company email addresses of Game Freak employees (including contract workers, former employees, and ex-employees) were exposed by the leak. See the translated version of the document below.
“We are contacting the affected employees individually,” the company said. “For those who cannot be contacted individually due to resignation or other reasons, we will notify them through this announcement and set up a hotline to handle inquiries regarding this matter”.
Game Freak said they have “already rebuilt and re-inspected the server” to ensure it is secure and would do everything possible to prevent future recurrence “by strengthening our security measures”.
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Game Freak is one of the three companies with a controlling stake in the Pokémon franchise. Since the inception of the franchise in the 90s, Game Freak has been the main developer for the game’s main series. The developer is currently working on Pokémon Legends Z-A for Nintendo Switch and several other games.
Details uncovered from Game Freak leak
According to Game Freak, an estimated 1 TB of data cutting across everything from source code of older titles to the codenames of upcoming Pokémon games were spewed to the public. The company was founded in 1989 and best known for the Pokémon series.
The August leak has surfaced never-before-seen images and cut assets. Some of the images already spotted include concept art for starter Pokémon and characters that never made it to the hands of gamers.
Another huge reveal from the leak is the “Pokémon Movie 24”, an adult-themed reboot movie that might have been lost in production, Codename Bauer. It has been in development since 2021 and was supposed to be released in 2023, according to a social media post from an eagle-eyed observer.
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The movie was supposed to confront ‘adult themes’ like bullying and suicide and was designed to be a reboot that would ‘reconnect with lapsed fans’ and bring back more adult fans to the franchise.
It is also claimed that another project Codename Reload was in development and was planned for release in 2023. According to a post by @CentroLeaks on X, the project was “an all-age anime series co-produced with Twin Engine (TE)”.
NEW POKÉMON ANIME
Codename: Reload
This is an all-ages anime series co-produced with Twin Engine (TE), a planning and production company affiliated with Studio Colorido, known for A Whisker Away.
◎ Episodes:
12 episodes (approx. 21 minutes per episode) over 1 year
• Media:… pic.twitter.com/nmAjcsSZta— Centro LEAKS (@CentroLeaks) October 13, 2024
GameBaba Universe decided against posting links to the leaked document for personal reasons. Since last year, many game developers have suffered leaks including Rockstar and Insomniac Games.
