The Pokemon Company And Nintendo Trace Pokemon Sword/Shield Leaks To Gaming Publication, Cut All Ties With Outlet

As you may recall, a massive leak of Pokemon Sword And Shield occurred just a few months before the game officially released, prompting Nintendo and the Pokemon Company to seek legal action to identify those responsible.

Today, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have released a joint statement confirming that they have caught one of the people behind the leak. In this case, the leaker was a contributor at Portuguese Nintendo Fansite FNintendo, who received an early copy of the game for review. As a result of their failure to keep confidentiality, Nintendo has decided to sever all ties with the site.

In early November, Nintendo identified a number of photographs taken from game play that revealed multiple new and unannounced Pokemon from Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield.

These photographs had been posted online and Nintendo, together with The Pokemon Company, quickly identified the person responsible for these leaks, and took immediate action.

These Pokemon were leaked by a reviewer for the Portuguese website FNintendo, who had received an early copy of the game for review purposes. Both he and FNintendo failed to handle confidential material, resulting in a clear breach of the confidentiality agreement between Nintendo and the media outlet. As a result, Nintendo will no longer work with FNintendo.

Nintendo will always protect its intellectual property and brands. Leaks hurt not just Nintendo, but the thousands of employees who work hard to bring games to market, and the millions of fans around the world who look forward to news and surprises.

To surprise and delight players through new experiences is a shared passion for Nintendo and The Pokemon Company. We will pursue all avenues to preserve surprises for players of future Pokemon titles.

FNintendo has also released their own statement on the matter, where they apologized to Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, as well as confirmed that the review in question has been let go from the site.

Nintendo and the Pokemon Company’s actions will likely serve as a stiff deterrent to all other gaming news outlets from leaking details from unreleased Nintendo games in the future.

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