At 10:28 pm on November 1, an image of an unknown and classified Pokémon appeared in a Discord group. Gigantamax Machamp, the megasized version of the bodybuilder Pokémon, was slated to appear in the then-unreleased games Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. Within minutes, JPEGs of it were posted to 4chan. Then, on a dedicated Pokémon Reddit. It wasn’t long until 300 URLs were hosting it.
Nintendo and the Pokémon Company, who developed and published Pokémon Sword and Shield, said in a November court document that they had handled the games’ materials with the “utmost secrecy.” Background checks. Secure computers with secure storage mechanisms to which limited employees had access. Digital tracers. Key cards for building entrances. And, of course, nondisclosure agreements. After the levee broke, the Pokémon Company submitted takedown request after takedown request, but Gigantamax Machamp was uncontainable. In fact, it was only the beginning: Over the next 15 hours after the first Discord post, at least 18 other pictures of Pokémon leaked and proliferated—all from the game’s unreleased strategy guide.
Nintendo filed a lawsuit against the alleged leakers who had undermined its PR strategy. (It wasn’t out of character; Nintendo’s lawyers and leak investigators are playfully referred to as “the Nintendo ninjas” among the leaking community.) Yet over the last couple of months, the company has taken action against multiple leakers. Ahead of the much-anticipated release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Nintendo’s traditional E3 digital press conference, it looks like the gaming giant is cracking down.
Nintendo’s leaking community is more visible than those of other game companies.
In addition to Nintendo’s suit against the Pokémon Sword and Shield leakers, Nintendo in mid-February cut ties with Portuguese review site FNintendo, whose freelance reviewer shared screenshots from the games. The leaker Zippo told WIRED that they will no longer be leaking Nintendo games. And in a message on his Discord channel, the leaker Sabi said the same to friends and fans. Finally, in February, the FBI caught one of the most connected Nintendo leakers of all time—a hacker who went by the name RyanRocks.
“Nintendo has been increasingly aggressive when it comes to combating leaks,” says one longtime member of the Nintendo leaking community who asked to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions. They say that a few years ago, “it absolutely wasn’t as threatening, and even just early last year it wasn’t bad.”
Says another community member, who obtained a copy of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate two weeks before its 2018 launch and whom we’ll call Gary, “Nintendo is always cracking down on leakers, but recently there has been a surge in activity.”
Nintendo and the Pokémon Company declined to comment for this article.
The recent high-profile leaks have caused Nintendo to significantly tighten its security measures, highlighting the increased importance of protecting proprietary information in today's digital age.
With high-profile leaks in the spotlight, Nintendo has taken decisive measures to tighten its security and content regulation—a sign of a company ready for new challenges amidst growing public scrutiny.
