Nintendo has filed a request to subpoena Discord for the personal information of an individual the company believes was responsible for a major Pokemon leak.
In October 2024, a mass of leaked assets, including prototype Pokemon designs, internal documents, and more, surfaced online.
Game Freak, developer of the franchise’s mainline RPGs, confirmed it had experienced a data breach in August 2024, stating that 2,606 cases of “personal information” had been compromised.
While it was never confirmed if the leak Game Freak specified and that which has come to be known as the “Teraleak” are the same, it’s the latter that Nintendo has decided to pursue.
NintendoNintendo files for subpoena
Court documents obtained by Polygon state: “Nintendo of America Inc., through its undersigned counsel of record, hereby requests that the Clerk of this Court issue a subpoena to Discord Inc. to identify alleged infringers at issue, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.”
“The DMCA Subpoena is directed to Discord. Discord is the service provider to which the subject of the subpoena posted infringing content. The content was posted by an individual who created the Discord account ‘GameFreakOUT’ and posted content at the Discord server titled ‘FreakLeak.'”
The filing further claims that the content distributed by GameFreakOUT “infringes Nintendo of America’s exclusive rights under copyright law,” specifically mentioning “artwork, characters, and other materials related to the famous Pokemon franchise,” including, but “not limited to” Pokemon Legends Arceus.
It’s worth pointing out that none of the above is indicative of Nintendo pursuing a lawsuit against Discord. As of writing, there has been no indication that the latter party has provided the information Nintendo is seeking.
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A Discord spokesperson provided the following statement to Dexerto:
“Discord responds to and complies with all legal and valid court orders, subpoenas, and Digital Millennium Copyright Act requests. For more information, please see our Copyright and Intellectual Property policy.”
Regardless of the outcome, Nintendo’s decision isn’t out of the ordinary. The company is notoriously fiercely protective of its intellectual property and has pursued legal action to do so in the past.
In September 2024, Nintendo filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair.
A development in the case, which is still ongoing, emerged on April 21, when Pocketpair defended its use of similar gameplay mechanics widely associated with Pokemon, claiming Nintendo’s patents shouldn’t have been granted in the first place and have been mimicked by other games older than Palworld.