Why Massive Pokémon Leaks Have Fans More Worried Than Excited
"Pokémon" developer Game Freak suffered a massive leak months ago, and some of the stolen informatio has started making its way online in recent days. The leaks were incredibly detrimental to Game Freak, which lost not just information about previous and upcoming games, but also tons of personal info belonging to the developer's employees. Game Freak has since fixed the internal problem that made the leak possible, but the data is all out there now. It's a tragic situation for the company and its employees — and many "Pokémon" fans are torn between feeling excited and distressed.
Gamers have gotten to see documents detailing a never-before-told dark history of the Pokémon universe, a handful of Pokémon that were deemed too disturbing to be released, and even the full source code for multiple "Pokémon" games. What the leaks have to tell us about the in-development titles at Game Freak is an even bigger deal, but some fans don't want the leakers to reveal all of the dev's plans just yet. With full playable builds of some old and upcoming games being teased by leakers, a subsection of the fanbase is extremely worried these leaks might cause the company to change its plans, depriving us of a new "Pokémon" game for a long time.
Gamers don't want leaks to cancel more content
The Game Freak hack will probably go down as one of the biggest leaks in gaming history, but we're still waiting to see what the fallout of the situation will actually be. Sometimes developers take leaks in stride and continue on with their plans as though nothing happened, but leaks occasionally motivate devs to go back to the drawing board. After "Wolverine" and "Spider-Man 2" leaks broke the internet in 2023, Insomniac ended up somewhat changing its plans for both games. The developer recently confirmed that no further DLC is planned for "Spider-Man 2," which some fans believe is due to the damage caused by those leaks. Now, Pokémaniacs are worried that Game Freak is going to follow a similar course after the "Pokémon" leaks.
People are gonna be asking this next year when Pokémon Legends Z-A and future Pokémon games have a totally different roadmap than what was originally planned https://t.co/VBCUWVMQ0L
— Daniel Pika (@itsDanielPika) October 20, 2024
Even though the Game Freak leaks are massive, only a limited amount of information has been decrypted and made public. Some fans are hoping it stays that way.
Ain't gonna lie, if the playable build of Pokemon Legends Z-A leaks, they might legit cancel the game.
I can understand why dude legit might not leak A LOT of information. Or JUST leak information and show/give us nothing to see/play.
— sacred (@GucciCanti) October 15, 2024
Though Game Freak has assured the world that it has resolved the issue which allowed the leaks in the first place, the company hasn't publicly revealed how it's responding to the situation going forward. It's been two years since the company released "Pokémon: Legends Arceus" and "Pokémon Scarlet" and "Violet," and fans are impatiently awaiting the next game. The prevailing hope right now seems to be that Game Freak stays the course, regardless of what new information makes its way onto the internet.