Image: The Pokemon Company
Pokemon game developer Game Freak has confirmed it was hacked, following the release of leaked Pokemon assets online.
This week has seen an avalanche of source code, concept art, documents and pitch decks from 25+ years of Pokemon history leak online, following a data hack of Pokemon developer Game Freak. After the data – which is continuing to surface online at the time of writing – was leaked onto social media platforms like Twitter/X and Reddit, Game Freak put out a statement to confirm that it had been hacked in August 2024 “by a third party.”
The leaked data is unlike anything the franchise has ever seen, revealing early concept art and sprites for now-iconic Pokemon, transcripts from meetings about ending Ash’s journey in the Pokemon anime, current progress on Pokemon Legends: Z/A, other future projects in the franchise and much more.
Massive Pokemon leak unveils future plans, assets, concept art and more
Game Freak has confirmed that it has been hacked, leading to the leak of a truly unfathomable amount of internal data from the Pokemon game developer online. Unfortunately, this leak is also said to include the personal information of over 2500 Game Freak employees, complete with their full names and contact information - potentially putting them at risk should the information become available online.
Twitter/X users like CentroLeaks and the PokeLeaks subreddit are documenting the leak, as multiple in-game assets and documents from decades of Pokemon history make their way online. Some of these assets include concept art for the original Pokemon anime, an explanation of how the world of Pokemon was created, work-in-progress sprites from several Pokemon games and more. Even builds from prototype versions of games like Pokemon X/Y and HeartGold/SoulSilver have been found in the leak.
As for future plans, the complete plotline of a Detective Pikachu movie sequel titled ‘The Great Detective Pikachu’ has supposedly been leaked, with Jordan Vogt-Roberts attached to direct. However, the project has either been delayed or cancelled at this point. A trilogy of movies in this universe were planned, including a movie called Game Boy that “aims to dig deep into the theme of Pokémon's boundless potential, creating a story that highlights the importance of bonds, whether between friends or between Pokémon themselves.”
Minutes from meetings between executives from The Pokemon Company have also been leaked, diving into “why Ash’s story in the anime needed to end.” Future plans for different Pokemon anime have also been leaked, including a potential timeskip for Pokemon Horizons to age its protagonists up and an all-new 12-episode standalone series codenamed Reload co-produced by Twin Engine. A 24th Pokemon movie codenamed Bauer was also in the works, but has seemingly been delayed or cancelled. It would have rebooted the movie franchise to connect with adult audiences, with a Kanto setting and Mew as its featured Legendary.
As for the games, Pokemon Legends: Z-A has reportedly had its source leaked. The next mainline Gen 10 Pokemon games are reportedly codenamed ‘Gaia’, and are in development for the Nintendo Switch 2. Interestingly, the Switch 2 is also codenamed Ounce. Another multiplayer Splatoon-like Pokemon game was also mentioned in the leak.
The gargantuan amount of content surfacing online from this leak appears to be authentic, judging by its level of detail and variety, but there’s always a chance that some of the information being shared around is false. Hence, one should take this information with a grain of salt. This is not the first time a game developer has been hit with a leak like this in recent years. Rockstar Games and Insomniac Games were hit with similar leaks, leading to the release of data from upcoming games like Marvel’s Wolverine and GTA 6 online.