The Worst Pokémon Game Leaks In History
Pokémon fans worldwide have been waiting for the release of Scarlet and Violet for some time now, and anticipation breeds impatience, especially in the gaming community. With that in mind, it comes as no surprise but some disappointment when a Spanish version of the upcoming Violet edition was leaked on Twitter via a series of screenshot leaks. Games are not unusual to go through these moments during re-release and early pre-release phases. Rockstar’s dev team was in a frenzy when full clips of the new GTA VI beta popped up online.
Nintendo Switch games are often victims of it, too, with a version of Xenoblade Chronicles III being leaked in July 2022. They’re both blessings and curses for the dev teams, ruining the surprises they may have packed into new releases and often increasing anticipation for new releases by giving away just a peek of what’s to come. Pokémon games, being some of the most popular of all time, are no stranger to them. Here are some of the worst they’ve experienced.
Diamond & Pearl
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl were due to be released on 19th November, only for full physical leaks of several game versions to be made public just three weeks before the official release date. For those looking to read the latest about Pokémon concerning imminent releases, leaks are anticipated and expected. Still, it’s best if they are surface-level and work as beneficial, organic marketing.
The worst part in Diamond and Pearl’s case was that some of the game’s core elements, including the Pokedex design, were being openly discussed and scrutinized online following the leaks. Many images of physical copies of the game and unboxing were happening due to early releases, which made the leaks all the more uncontrolled and left Nintendo worrying that more could follow. While everyone accepts leaks would happen from time to time, the mad dash to remove footage online, while fearing for a complete data mine of the early version, made the last few weeks of development nervy ones for Nintendo.
Pokémon Sword and Shield
A game developer rarely takes such a hard line with a leak. Still, it was very much the case when Sword and Shield were partially leaked, including the theft of what was described as “trade secrets” and unsolicited images of unreleased strategy guides. In this case, Nintendo took action and filed publically-available legal documents against two individuals, one of whom worked for the company tasked with printing the guides and another who received the images and leaked them on Discord.
In the end, the two in question ended up settling for $300k between them in damages with Nintendo. This leak was worse because it upset fans and potentially damaged sales. Many felt the leaked images revealed a lack of coverage of many of the available Pokémon in the universe. Nintendo threatened to subpoena both 4Chan and Discord and track the leaked images to specific hours they could have occurred, pinpointing individuals who could have caused the leaks.
Compared to the above examples, the leaks of Violet and Scarlet seem relatively benign. Perhaps ruining some surprises and exposing the visual designs, but the game’s core features and new add-ons seem to have been kept under wraps, much to the relief of Nintendo and Pokémon fans.
