Game Freak has been subject to a major data leak which, among other things, revealed details about Nintendo's next console and future Pokémon games.
The codename of the Switch 2 has been revealed, plus other Pokémon news ahead of any official announcements.
The developer of the Pokémon games has confirmed that it is a victim of a massive data breach, which resulted in a flood of details on forthcoming games hitting the internet. Internal references to Nintendo's next console were also part of the enormous leak.
Game Freak has released a statement and apology, which also reveals that personal employee information was also seized in the hack:
"We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and concern caused to all involved," it reads (translated from the Japanese original).
It also claims the hack took place in August and that the company's servers have been rebuilt since. Security has also now been tightened.
However, that's not before an enormous amount of sensitive details on future Pokémon games and the Nintendo Switch 2 were unleashed. Documents and images have appeared on Reddit in the last couple of days, for example, that show Nintendo's internal codename for its next console to be "Ounce".
They also show that the next major Pokémon release will likely be cross-generation – available on both Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch. It is codenamed "Gaia" but could, in fact, be the already announced Pokémon Legends Z-A.
That's set to release next year – and with the Switch 2 also set for release in 2025, it might even be a launch title. It'll certainly follow soon after, if not.
It is also claimed that details on a movie sequel to Detective Pikachu is planned, plus further movies and a new anime series. And alleged source code for previous games has also hit the web.
It's worth noting that while it is embarrassing, maybe even damaging on a corporate level, the real victims of this hack are the employees of Game Freak who have had their data stolen through no fault of their own.
Thankfully, it is alleged that it's only their names and company email addresses that were seized, so let's hope they will be okay through all of this.
