'They took the bait': Pokémon leakers insist they deliberately hosted hacked images to draw legal attention from Pokémon Company, confirm details of unannounced game are legitimate
Blog Andrew Joseph 17 Oct , 2025 0
The owner of a high-profile social media account dedicated to sharing Pokémon leaks boasts that the Pokémon Company has removed a number of images today in response to a copyright claim — which they say only proves that the leaked details are legitimate.
A long list of posts by CentroLeaks, which this week shared dozens of photos purportedly from Data of the infamous Pokémon “Teraleak”was originally hacked from developer Game Freak's servers last year.
CentroLeaks, while not a source of Teraleak itself, plays a key role in promoting and sharing its content. Images of this week's Pokémon Legends: ZA betaarrive Eye-opening details about unannounced games said to be coming within the decade. Neither Nintendo nor The Pokémon Company responded to IGN's requests for comment.
CentroLeaks posted this morning that “funny enough, they took the bait,” and suggested that The Pokémon Company was behind the removal of numerous images that appeared to detail upcoming projects, including next year's unannounced but highly anticipated “Gen 10” Switch 2 game.
“Mr. Takato Utsunomiya, Chief Operating Officer of The Pokémon Company, personally sent an email to Centro Leaks/X requesting that the Pokémon leaked images be taken down,” another source said. postal According to the account described later share This appears to be an official request to remove a long list of posts because they contain “copyrighted works (illustrations) of characters from the Pokémon video game series… copied and distributed to the public without our permission.”
The account noted that the deleted images included details of another set of Mega Pokémon in Legends ZA's $20 DLC. “I guess Game Freak also confirmed that the list of returning Pokémon in the Legends: ZA DLC is real,” CentroLeaks said. explain.
Other deleted images include concept art and early screenshots intended to showcase various upcoming Pokémon projects, including a 10th generation game, a third Pokémon Legends game, and ambitious concepts for Pokémon games spanning multiple regions.
Attention to the CentroLeaks account has been so widespread that fan art of the Pokémon species shown in the leaked art has begun to emerge, possibly years before the official reveal.
However, as IGN has previously said, it's worth treating any details leaked online this week with caution, as there are claims that some of the logos are actually fan-made, and it's generally acknowledged that all information is now at least a year out of date. With Game Freak's servers compromised in August 2024, The Pokémon Company's plans may have changed, with specific concepts or even the entire project potentially being scrapped entirely.
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have previously Trying to track down the culprits behind the original Teraleakalthough it doesn't appear to have been much of a success, judging from more details that have been widely circulated online this week. As for CentroLeaks, the account's owner doesn't seem particularly concerned about the two companies, despite their reputation for being litigious.
As of this writing, the latest update from the CentroLeaks account is a retweet of a previous tweet postal Starting in 2024, it reads simply: “If only he knew that the law does not exist in Peru.”
IGN Review of Pokémon Legends: ZA is in progress It's live now, and if you want to check out our impressions from the first 24 hours, the full review will be posted next week. If you are entering Pokémon Legends ZA, please select your Getting Started Pokémonand check out what we're doing Pokémon Legends: ZA Walkthroughmore of our Side mission list Make sure you don't miss a thing. we have one more Pokémon Legends: ZA Picture Bookand most importantly, guidelines All clothing stores and clothing in Pokémon Legends: ZA This way you can capture them in style.
Tom Phillips is IGN's news editor. You can contact Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social