Nintendo issued a subpoena request to a California court docket that, if authorized, would require Discord to supply Nintendo the identification of the Pokemon Teraleaker. “Teraleak” is the moniker Pokemon followers gave to the huge leak from October 2024 that reportedly included not simply details about Sport Freak and The Pokemon Firm’s upcoming initiatives, similar to Pokemon Legends: Z-A, however private details about Sport Freak staff as nicely. The leak additionally included information from previous Pokemon video games, together with idea artwork and scrapped designs.
Nintendo owns roughly 33 p.c of Pokemon, with Sport Freak and The Pokemon Firm proudly owning the opposite two-thirds.
Polygon obtained a replica of Nintendo’s court docket submitting, which exhibits the corporate requested the leaker’s title, handle, cellphone quantity, and e-mail handle. Nintendo additionally offered redacted photos taken from a Discord server referred to as FreakLeak, the place the leaker, who glided by GameFreakOUT on the platform, posted 1 terabyte of knowledge taken from Sport Freak’s inner servers. The picture Nintendo offered within the court docket submitting confirmed GameFreakOUT posting a file containing the leaked information and a message telling the group’s members to “Take pleasure in.”
Nintendo issued DMCA takedown notices in an try and take away the stolen information, although it stays publicly out there on-line. Whereas the corporate hasn’t indicated an intent to sue the Pokemon leaker, Nintendo has a historical past of in search of litigation towards these whose actions it perceives as a enterprise risk.
Gary Bowser, for instance, was arrested on federal fees of fraud for his half in creating and promoting instruments to hack online game consoles, together with the Nintendo Swap, so individuals may play video games on their units with out paying for them. Bowser was launched from jail, however owes Nintendo $10 million in compensation and has 25 p.c of his month-to-month earnings garnished to pay the settlement.