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Nintendo is requesting a subpoena from a California court that, if granted, would force Discord to give it information about the identity of the person behind last year's massive Pokemon leak, known as the "FreakLeak" or the "TeraLeak".
According to court documents seen and reported on by Polygon, Nintendo is requesting the courts order Discord to proide the name, address, phone number, and email address of a Discord user known as "GameFreakOUT". Last October, GameFreakOUT is alleged to have posted content including copyright-protected artwork, characters, source code, and other materials related to pokemon to a Discord server called "FreakLeak," after which they were distributed widely across the internet.
Though not confirmed, the materials were likely obtained in a data breach back in August that Game Freak disclosed the following October. Per Game Freak, the data breach included 2,606 cases of current, former, and contract employee names being accessed. Oddly, leaked files began appearing online on October 12, and Game Freak's statement appeared online the following day, but was backdated to October 10 and does not mention confidential company materials beyond employee information.
The leaked materials included numerous unannounced projects, as well as cut content and other background information and early builds of other Pokemon games. Notably, the leak unveiled Pokemon Champions, an upcoming battle-focused Pokemon game, prior to the game's official announcement in February. It also contained information about the upcoming Pokemon Legends: Z-A that has since been proven correct, alongside yet-to-be-proven information on the next generation of Pokemon, source code for various DS pokemon titles, meeting summaries, and cut lore from Pokemon Legends: Arceus and other games.
Nintendo has not yet filed suit against a hacker or leaker in response, but given the subpoena it seems likely Nintendo is trying to find the identity of the person responsible in hopes of doing so. Nintendo historically has been highly litigious about everything from piracy to patent infringement, so if the subpoena is granted, it is perhaps only a matter of time.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
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