Pokémon fans love rumors... but Nintendo, much less so. The Japanese company is now hunting down the individual behind the monster leak of 2024, nicknamed "Teraleak". This time, it's serious: the American justice system is on the case.
In October 2024, confidential documents about Pokémon flooded the web: source codes, character designs, game projects (including Legends: Z-A), and even unreleased movie scripts. The "Teraleak," named for its titanic scale, shocked Nintendo. Several months later, the company finally went on the offensive: it demanded the identity of the person responsible, a certain "GameFreakOUT," from Discord.
Via a Californian court, Nintendo is demanding that the platform reveal the leaker's name, address, and email address. Reason: intellectual property violation. The documents shared on the Discord FreakLeak server have indeed exposed well-kept secrets, despite Nintendo's attempts to remove them via DMCAs.
A legal hunt for the origins of Teraleak
In its request, Nintendo describes "GameFreakOUT" as the main instigator. A partially censored screenshot from the Discord server shows the user sharing a file with a simple "enjoy." A boon for fans, a nightmare for the publisher.
The stolen data included sensitive elements: beta versions of games, transcripts of internal meetings, references to an unannounced MMO... Enough to give Game Freak, the studio behind Pokémon, the cold sweats, which had confirmed a cyberattack, without mentioning these details, as early as October 10, 2024.
Nintendo has a long tradition of fighting leaks. In 2019, it fined those responsible for the disclosure of a Sword/Shield guide $150,000 each. This time, the stakes are higher: preventing ongoing projects from vanishing on the forums.
If Discord complies, "GameFreakOUT" risks a costly lawsuit. But the platform, known for its privacy policy, has yet to react publicly. In the meantime, Nintendo's lawyers are pleading urgency: every day, the Teraleak feeds theories and spoilers, eroding the element of surprise.
For fans, it's a dilemma. While the leaks excite the community, they also undermine the work of developers. As one anonymous employee summed up: "Imagine preparing a birthday surprise that everyone already knows about." As revealed Polygon, Nintendo, for its part, clearly doesn't want to joke around anymore.
0 Comments