Nintendo battling Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Switch leaks
As retail copies leak weeks early.
Nintendo is rushing to remove footage of the unreleased Pokémon Diamond and Pearl remakes, after physical copies of the game apparently leaked out into the wild weeks before their official street date.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are due to launch on 19th November. Despite being revamped remakes of the original Nintendo DS games, there's still plenty about these new versions which Nintendo has kept under wraps.
The game's Pokédex, for example, as well as features found in the original games' third entry Pokémon Platinum, are all being discussed online. Photos of boxed copies and videos of gameplay are also doing the rounds.
More damaging for Nintendo, perhaps, is that this has happened yet again - despite a concerted effort in the past to clamp down on Pokémon leaks.
In June this year, The Pokémon Company reached a $300k settlement with two fans who leaked details of Pokémon Sword and Shield back in 2019. Each were told to pay $150k in damages.
Sword and Shield gameplay footage also hit the internet from an early copy provided to a fan website under embargo for a review. Shortly after launch, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company took the extraordinary step of publicly naming and shaming the website responsible, and stating that the publication had now been permanently blacklisted.
Pokémon fans are now bracing themselves for a full datamine of the game to hit soon, as Nintendo pulls footage as best it can.
After the launch of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, the franchise will return in January for Pokémon Legends Arceus. How early will that leak?