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The most important game trailers and announcements of the week at a glance
by Domagoj Belancic
Last year, the "Pokémon" development studio Game Freak was hacked. Now those responsible are publishing new information from the stolen data.
About a year ago, unauthorised persons used social engineering to gain access to the servers of the «Pokémon» developer studio Game Freak. Around one terabyte of data was stolen. Fans are calling the incident «Teraleak». The hack is one of the biggest hacks in video game history.
Shortly before the release of «Pokémon Legends: Z-A», the hackers publish new, previously unknown information from the huge amount of data. And it's quite something.
If you don't want to spoil the surprise of the upcoming «Pokémon» games, you shouldn't read any further. The information is unconfirmed and not official content - so it should be taken with a grain of salt.
Game Freak's entire roadmap up to 2030 is listed in the newly released files. The following «Pokémon» games are to be released by the end of the decade
It is particularly exciting that Game Freak will be using a new, in-house developed graphics engine for the new «Pokémon» generation. Initial test images and videos give hope that the game series will finally take the next technological step and leave the poor graphics and technology of the Switch games behind.
The next «Pokémon Legends» spin-off is expected to be released in 2027. Internally, it is called «Ringo». It is set in the Galar region, which is known from «Pokémon Sword and Shield».
The eleventh «Pokémon» generation for the Switch 2 will then follow in 2030. There is still little concrete information on these games.
The most ambitious project in Game Freak's pipeline, however, appears to be «Seed». It is rumoured to be an MMO that combines the regions from the first four generations into one large game world. If this is true, we can probably expect the biggest «Pokémon» game of all time.
As a reminder, the first four regions are: Kanto («Red and Blue»), Johto («Gold and Silver»), Hoenn («Ruby and Sapphire») and Sinnoh («Diamond and Pearl»).
Furthermore, the development budgets of the games have been leaked - they are much lower than expected. «Pokémon Legends: Z-A» is said to have cost just 13 million dollars, while around 20 million dollars have been budgeted for «Wind and Waves».
In April of this year, Nintendo took steps to track down those responsible for the «Teraleak» hack. As Polygon reports, the company has asked a Californian court to force Discord to reveal the identity of a user suspected of being behind the attack.
The Game Freak hack is not an isolated incident. Game studios are repeatedly targeted by hacker groups that steal sensitive data and often demand a ransom from companies.
In 2023, the Sony studio Insomniac was hit by a massive hacker attack /page/massive-hack-and-leaks-at-playstation-studio-insomniac-31029. Rockstar was not spared in 2022 either - in a massive leak, over 90 videos of «GTA VI» were published.
Nintendo was hit by the so-called «Gigaleak» in 2020. Among other things, source codes for consoles, tech demos and emulators were stolen. This week, the infamous Crimson Collective also claimed to have gained access to sensitive Nintendo data. Whether there is any truth to the vague announcement remains to be seen.
You can read the original report from «Teraleak» from October 2024 here:
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Show allIn 2026, «Pokémon» celebrates its 30th anniversary. To coincide with this, the tenth generation of «Pokémon» games is to be released for the Switch 2. A DLC is expected to follow in 2027. According to the leak, the title is called «Wind and Waves» - internally it is referred to as «Gaia». The game world is inspired by the island world of Indonesia and not Greece as previously reported. In addition to «normal» islands, there will also be procedurally generated islands, as well as Pokémon that adapt their appearance to your playing style. Their appearance will be «infinitely» variable.
Development costs in Japan are generally lower than in the USA. If the figures are correct, the low budgets are still surprising given the fact that «Pokémon» is the most successful media franchise of all time. An extreme comparison that also came to light from a hack: Insomniac's «Spider-Man 2» is said to have gobbled up over $300 million
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