Information is possibly one of the most valuable resources in the world. Unfortunately, gaming is an industry just as vulnerable to the terrors of information leaks as any other.
Information is possibly one of the most valuable resources in the world. A person with accurate and specific information will always be in control, especially if everyone else is in ignorance. This fact goes double for corporations, businesses and governments. In the corporate world, data breaches and information leaks are well-known dangers to any company. Most corporations are quite selective with the information that they allow the general public to know. They do not want the details of their intellectual properties to be so easily accessed and exploited by competitors, such negligence and incompetency would risk the loss of millions. According to the technology company IBM, the US lost 4.88 million USD in 2024 through data breaches.
Data breaches pose a threat to potential clients and even ordinary employees; information about their location, banking details and even their Social Security Number would be at the mercy of anyone with access to it. Cyber Management Alliance states that the UK Ministry of Defence suffered a data breach that resulted in the leaking of names, bank details, and even home addresses of 270,000 current and former military personnel.
Data breaches pose a threat to potential clients and even ordinary employees; information about their location, banking details and even their Social Security Number would be at the mercy of anyone with access to it.
These data breaches are usually conducted by cyber gangs who use ransomware attacks to hold this information hostage in order to force the victims to pay whatever fee they demand. For example, in February 2024, Changer Healthcare was targeted by the cyber gang BlackCat. They used a ransomware attack to infiltrate the company’s systems, resulting in a loss of $2.87 billion as a response and over $6 billion to assist the affected healthcare providers. Most of the time, the corporations refuse to pay the ransom and the information they hold is leaked across the internet. Despite how devastating these attacks can be, paying the ransom encourages more cyber gangs to try attacks of their own, possibly giving them the confidence to use more damaging information ransomed at a steeper cost.
Unfortunately, the gaming industry is just as perceptible to the terrors of information leaks. Nintendo has been a frequent victim of data leaks for a long time, with the Nintendo Gigaleak among the most infamous. From March 2018 to October 2024, there have been several instances of information pertaining to Nintendo consoles, both old and new, along with their respective games being shared on the online forum 4chan. It started with smaller pieces of internal information like ROMs and early Pokémon designs, along with the source code of the Nintendo 64, GameCube and Wii.
However, over the years the information became more confidential. The name “Gigaleak” was coined because several gigabytes of data was released including prototypes of Yoshi’s Island, Super Mario Kart and Star Fox. Once this information was leaked on 4chan, it would not take long for it to spread to every corner of the internet. Twitter accounts jumped at the chance to repost this exclusive look of the unused ideas and assets of these cult classic games. However, retro games and consoles were not the sole targets of these breaches. In October 2024, Game Freak, the developer known for the Pokémon franchise, had an extensive and wide-reaching data breach that held multiple beta designs for Pokémon across several games, along with source codes for early builds. There were even some small snippets of information on future Pokémon projects although nothing to make concrete conclusions to.
Despite the tumultuous legal problems that these leaks burden the Game Freak and Nintendo at large with, the gaming community was ecstatic from this trove of behind-the-scenes content. Content creators now have free material for YouTube videos, TikTok and Instagram content to milk for many months. To this day, there are still YouTube videos speculating on future games based on these leaks.
According to Polygon, Nintendo had to issue a statement apologising for the release of over 2,600 items of personal data.
Information leaks are treated by the gaming community as positive events despite how the companies suffering from these data breaches will have their reputations stained thanks to the immortal nature of the internet. According to Polygon, Nintendo had to issue a statement apologising for the release of over 2,600 items of personal data. Any kind of data breach is a release of information that a company didn’t want the general public to know. So, no matter how excited the average gamer is at this new information, there is someone scrambling to fix this grievous error and mitigate the damage.
Even though leaks may be positive in the short term for the gaming community, there can be negative effects later on. For years, people have been waiting for a successor for the massively popular Nintendo Switch. This hybrid console is significantly underpowered in comparison with its competition, being effectively two generations behind in terms of hardware. As a result, people knew a successor console would be created in response and that it was only a matter of time before Nintendo would announce its existence. Unfortunately, year after year, that announcement never came. So naturally, people began to speculate what this sequel console would look like, what its hardware specifications will be and even if new innovative gimmicks would be included.
The gaming community have been calling this potential successor “Switch 2” for many years as it’s the most intuitive name for what everyone expects the console to be: a console that keeps the foundations of the original’s strengths but addresses its noticeable weaknesses. This sequel console was finally announced in January this year but that was after the console’s entire existence was made public through leaks for several months. It got to the point that even that console’s physical appearance was known because of leaked Amazon listings for silicon cases.
Almost everything that was revealed in the announcement video was information that most people either speculated or were aware of through leaks. While it was exciting to officially see Nintendo show off the console, unless you were completely disengaged with the gaming community, the Switch 2 was exactly what you would have expected. When a product gets leaked with this much accuracy, there is very little that could surprise the consumer. Nintendo could have announced the Switch 2 in a Tweet and the effect would not have been drastically different.
To the average person, data breaches and information leaks may seem like a behind-the-scenes, well-intentioned exposé at unfinished content or unused ideas, but it is important to keep in mind that everything seen from leaks was kept away from the public for a reason.