Today, Nintendo has officially cut ties with a game publication company. According to IGN, back in 2019, a reviewer working for the Portuguese website FNintendo who received a copy of the one of the games a bit before its release leaked images of the game online revealing a number of Pokémon that had not been announced at that time. The Pokémon Company and Nintendo discovered the source of the leaks rather quickly and took action.
Now the two companies have taken another step and officially cut ties with the game publication site and the reviewer. The companies released a statement stating that “Both he and FNintendo failed to handle confidential material, resulting in a clear breach of the confidentiality agreement between Nintendo and the media outlet. As a result, Nintendo will no longer work with FNintendo, Nintendo will always protect its intellectual property and brands. Leaks hurt not just Nintendo, but the thousands of employees who work hard to bring games to market, and the millions of fans around the world who look forward to news and surprises. To surprise and delight players through new experiences is a shared passion for Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. We will pursue all avenues to preserve surprises for players of future Pokémon titles.”
FNintendo has also released their own statement apologizing for the leak and taking full responsibility. “We recognize it is impermissible to break embargo guidelines and we failed to handle the review materials with sufficient care. We fully respect Nintendo’s decision to cancel the confidentiality agreement between our companies as a result of this breach of trust, and accept that we will no longer receive products from Nintendo, nor will we be invited to attend their events.We want to apologise to Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, and to our readers for letting them down.” This isn’t the only leak that Nintendo is attempting to plug up. According to IGN The Pokémon Company stated that they had been given permission to seek individual leakers on Discord and 4chan for financial reimbursement. So far, there have been no major leaks for the expansion pass for Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield which is available for pre-order right now on Nintendo eshop.