Pokémon game developer confirms data breach exposing employee and game data
More than 2,600 employees were affected by the Game Freak data breach, and the game’s source code and artwork were also compromised.
The Japanese video game developer currently responsible for the popular Pokémon The video game series has confirmed that it was the victim of a major data breach affecting more than 2,000 current and former employees.
In addition to employee data, a large number of development documents were also part of the leak, and source code, artwork and more were shared on numerous gaming forums, especially the popular subreddit r/PokeLeaks .
The leak – already called “TeraLeak”, after a 2020 Nintendo leak known as GigaLeak – is being hosted anonymously online, although the motive and identity of the leaker remain unknown.
“In connection with the unauthorized access of a third party to our server in August 2024, it emerged that personal information of our employees, etc., was disclosed,” said a company statement issued on 10 October and translated by Google Translate, said
“We apologize for the inconvenience and worry this has caused to everyone involved.”
The disclosed employee information includes personal data containing the names and email addresses of 2,606 current and former employees in full-time and contract positions. Game Freak has begun contacting affected individuals, according to the notice.
“We have already rebuilt and re-inspected the server,” Game Freak said.
“We will work to prevent this from happening again by further strengthening our security measures.”
As difficult as the leak may be for Game Freak and its employees, fans of the developer’s games are having a field day digging through the data, which dates back to games created 25 years ago, as well as game titles that did not see the light of day. daylight.
“It’s so interesting that Kecleon, Wailmer, and Azurill were finalized very early,” said a member of r/PokeLeaks.
“These are the first three Gen III Pokémon which I remember seeing around 2001/2 on the very first serebii and other Pokémon forums, when I was about eight years old.
Others, however, find their joy at new art and information tempered by the personal impact on Game Freak employees.
“I hope most personal information stays mostly invisible, it’s just gross to see stuff like this when I just want to see interesting development information,” said another.
“I remember when personal development emails were included with Starfox 2 beta assets during Gigaleak 2020, and that was not acceptable either.
