Sword and Shield Leakers to Face Lawsuit by Pokémon Company
The Pokémon Company is suing three unnamed defendants for leaking Pokémon Sword and Shield information.
Even though majority of Pokémon fan-base was largely upset over developer Game Freak cutting down many fan-favorites from Pokédex, recently released Pokémon Sword and Shield game has been doing exceptionally well worldwide.
However, Sword/Shield publisher The Pokémon Company has still decidef to go after original leakers who revealed some in-game information online shortly ahead of launch that caused massive backlash by filing a new lawsuit.
RELATED: Sword and Shield Code Has Some Pokémon Hidden
A few weeks before release, pictures of exclusive Pokémon and their unseen forms from Sword and Shield strategy guide was posted on 4Chan and Discord that eventually spread across internet and various popular social media.
Images start showing up at a Discord server on November 1, starting with a new Pokémon, Gigantamax Machamp. In less than an hour, 18 photos showed up on the forum that eventually found its way on Reddit and everywhere else.
RELATED: Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Won't Have Switch Release
Seattle based law firm, Perkins Coie has been hired to find out three unnamed defendants who was responsible for the alleged leak that unveiled their stolen trade secrets from official strategy guide to audience worldwide.
Lawyers have found associate Discord accounts related to those images but it is hard to track true owners because of the platform's feature to post anonymously and without knowing who true leakers were, they cannot move forward.
RELATED: Undertale Creator Composed for Pokémon Sword and Shield
Sword and Shield strategy guide came out lately on November 22, a week after the game launched in November 15. Besides, The Pokémon Company took extensive level of security measures to ensure safety of their secrets.
People with access to these secrets have to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which even applied to contractors and vendors with restrictions on cell phones or cameras but someone along the line has probably broken a rule or two.
RELATED: Samurai Shodown 2019 for Nintendo Switch Delayed to 2020
Game Freak has most likely received major harsh criticism of enraged fans because of early leaks of cutting of National Dex. If they would have revealed it to fans themselves, their reaction would have been a bit less explosive.
Before this information was out, people were genuinely happy about release of a new Pokémon game but when they saw almost half of their favorites were missing, developers have totally lost any credibility they had to player-base.
RELATED: Pokémon Sword and Shield Won't Reuse Models from 3DS Games
Of course, they received extra bashing from fans with #GameFreakLied hashtag when they claimed to d extra work on overall visual for cutting down Pokédex and outright denied reusing models from previous games on Nintendo 3DS system.
Although it doesn't seem like there was no major financial blowback from the leaks, Pokémon Company simply wants to make a statement for anyone who will try to leak anything from their upcoming releases with threat of a lawsuit.
RELATED: Pokémon Sword and Shield Becomes Fastest-Selling Switch Game Ever
According to latest report from official source, Pokémon Sword and Shield has sold over 6 million copies worldwide in its launch week and became fastest-selling Nintendo Switch game of all time despite huge fan boycott.
Nevertheless, The Pokémon Company is hoping to get some compensational damages for wrongful doing of the leakers and settle matters in a court of law but to at least confront them, they have to find these John or Jane Does first.
Even though majority of Pokémon fan-base was largely upset over developer Game Freak cutting down many fan-favorites from Pokédex, recently released Pokémon Sword and Shield game has been doing exceptionally well worldwide.
However, Sword/Shield publisher The Pokémon Company has still decidef to go after original leakers who revealed some in-game information online shortly ahead of launch that caused massive backlash by filing a new lawsuit.
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| Sword and Shield Leakers to Face Lawsuit by Pokémon Company |
RELATED: Sword and Shield Code Has Some Pokémon Hidden
A few weeks before release, pictures of exclusive Pokémon and their unseen forms from Sword and Shield strategy guide was posted on 4Chan and Discord that eventually spread across internet and various popular social media.
Images start showing up at a Discord server on November 1, starting with a new Pokémon, Gigantamax Machamp. In less than an hour, 18 photos showed up on the forum that eventually found its way on Reddit and everywhere else.
RELATED: Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Won't Have Switch Release
Seattle based law firm, Perkins Coie has been hired to find out three unnamed defendants who was responsible for the alleged leak that unveiled their stolen trade secrets from official strategy guide to audience worldwide.
Lawyers have found associate Discord accounts related to those images but it is hard to track true owners because of the platform's feature to post anonymously and without knowing who true leakers were, they cannot move forward.
RELATED: Undertale Creator Composed for Pokémon Sword and Shield
Sword and Shield strategy guide came out lately on November 22, a week after the game launched in November 15. Besides, The Pokémon Company took extensive level of security measures to ensure safety of their secrets.
People with access to these secrets have to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which even applied to contractors and vendors with restrictions on cell phones or cameras but someone along the line has probably broken a rule or two.
RELATED: Samurai Shodown 2019 for Nintendo Switch Delayed to 2020
Game Freak has most likely received major harsh criticism of enraged fans because of early leaks of cutting of National Dex. If they would have revealed it to fans themselves, their reaction would have been a bit less explosive.
Before this information was out, people were genuinely happy about release of a new Pokémon game but when they saw almost half of their favorites were missing, developers have totally lost any credibility they had to player-base.
RELATED: Pokémon Sword and Shield Won't Reuse Models from 3DS Games
Of course, they received extra bashing from fans with #GameFreakLied hashtag when they claimed to d extra work on overall visual for cutting down Pokédex and outright denied reusing models from previous games on Nintendo 3DS system.
Although it doesn't seem like there was no major financial blowback from the leaks, Pokémon Company simply wants to make a statement for anyone who will try to leak anything from their upcoming releases with threat of a lawsuit.
RELATED: Pokémon Sword and Shield Becomes Fastest-Selling Switch Game Ever
According to latest report from official source, Pokémon Sword and Shield has sold over 6 million copies worldwide in its launch week and became fastest-selling Nintendo Switch game of all time despite huge fan boycott.
Nevertheless, The Pokémon Company is hoping to get some compensational damages for wrongful doing of the leakers and settle matters in a court of law but to at least confront them, they have to find these John or Jane Does first.
