Pokémon Developer Game Freak Reports Data Breach

Japanese game developer GAME FREAK announced last Thursday that it has suffered a data breach via unauthorized third-party access to its servers in August. The breach led to the names and company email addresses of 2,606 current and former GAME FREAK employees and contract workers being leaked. GAME FREAK is contacting the affected employees individually, and added that it has also run an inspection and reorganization of its servers.

Over the past weekend, posts on social media claim to leak gigabytes of information from upcoming projects, and assets from past games. The leaks reportedly include information on an unannounced Pokémon game for both the Switch and its planned successor, a separate unannounced Pokémon game co-developed with another studio, assets of unused graphics and music from past Pokémon games for the Nintendo DS, a planned live-action Pokémon Netflix show, and a planned sequel to the 2019 live-action Detective Pikachu film. ANN has not confirmed the details of the reported leaks.

GAME FREAK is best known for its development of the main Pokémon series of games, which it began with Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue in 1996. The company most recently developed the Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet games, which debuted in November 2022. GAME FREAK is currently developing the Pokémon Legends Z-A game for the Switch, with a planned 2025 release date.

Sources: Game Freak via Hachima Kikō, IT Media, IGN (Wesley Yin-Poole)