A massive spill of data from Game Freak, the developer behind the Pokémon franchise, has been revealed to contain source code, concept art, and over 25 years of internal files.
The data breach dubbed "Teraleak" contains a ton of stolen data, including the following:
- Developer build of Pokémon Black/White
- Old tech demos
- Unreleased games
- Test builds for Pokémon Go
- Documents for canceled and upcoming movies
- Concept art
- Technical documents
'The Pokémon brand is still really strong.'
Game Freak has confirmed the hack in a Japanese document; which, when translated, reveals that the names and company email addresses of over 2,600 employees, contract workers, and former employees were exposed.
"Our company has discovered that personal information of our employees and others was leaked in connection with unauthorized access to our servers by a third party in August 2024," Game Freak wrote.
"We are contacting the affected employees individually."
The company added, "We have already rebuilt and re-inspected the server and will strive to prevent recurrence by further strengthening our security measures." Then, it linked to a response form.
John F. Trent, editor for gaming and culture site That Park Place, said, "in the short term there might be some negative repercussions, but in the long run the Pokemon brand is still really strong."
Trent pointed to the brand's continuing to "kneecap" itself by embracing a woke ideology and said it may result in the company becoming an "enemy of the audience" it is trying to sell to.
What is becoming increasingly apparent, however, is how hacking culture and cybersecurity have become self-sustaining industries. Mysterious hacks and data dumps occur, and cyber security companies with shady connections jump at the chance to rescue the affected party.
In an interview about the 2014 Sony Pictures hack, researcher Ken Heckenlively referred to cybersecurity agencies as being “like bounty hunters" who all want to play heroes for big tech companies.
This mirrors the circumstances surrounding CrowdStrike, which made headlines during the 2016 federal electoral campaign.
The cyber-security firm was called upon to investigate the alleged hacks of the DNC despite being responsible for the party's cyber security already, essentially investigating itself.
CrowdStrike, which sparked a worldwide systems crash in August, was later revealed to have connections to the World Economic Forum, massive investment firm Vanguard, and intelligence agencies. The company even hired a former deputy assistant director of the FBI Cyber Division.
While data leaks for gaming companies are nothing new — see the PlayStation Network Outage of 2011 and Nintendo's 2018 data leak — it has become a necessity in recent years to examine all parties involved in the clean-up crew.
Competing industry or disgruntled employees are typically the leading suspects, and it seems appropriate to now ask: Who stands benefit from a data dump about Pokemon games?
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