The owner of a high-profile social media account dedicated to sharing Pokémon leaks boasted that The Pokémon Company had removed numerous images today in response to copyright claims – which they claim only proves that the leaked details are legitimate.
The copyright takedowns have now hit a long list of posts from CentroLeaks, an X account that this week shared dozens of photos that purport to come from data from the infamous Pokémon “Teraleak,” originally hacked from developer Game Freak’s servers last year.
While CentroLeaks is not the source of Teraleak itself, CentroLeaks has played a key role in publishing its content, sharing photos from this week’s Pokémon Legends: ZA beta, right through to eye-opening details of unannounced games that are supposedly coming out throughout the rest of the decade. Neither Nintendo nor The Pokémon Company responded to IGN’s request for comment.
“Funnily enough, they took the bait,” CentroLeaks wrote this morning, stating that the Pokémon Company was behind the removal of multiple photos that appeared to detail upcoming projects, including the unannounced but long-awaited “Gen 10” games for the Switch 2.
“Mr. Takato Utsunomiya, COO of The Pokémon Company, personally emailed Centro Leaks/X to remove Pokémon leak images” – another post according to the bill given later participatory what appeared to be a formal request to remove a long list of posts because they contained “copyrighted works (illustrations) depicting characters from the Pokémon video game series… reproduced and distributed publicly without our consent.”
The account noticed that among the deleted images are details of the next set of Mega Pokémon that will appear in the $20 Legends ZA DLC. “I think Game Freak also confirmed that the list of returning Pokémon in the Legends: ZA DLC is real” – CentroLeaks he said.
Other removed images included concept art and early screenshots that purported to show various upcoming Pokémon projects, including Gen 10 games, a third Pokémon Legends title, and an ambitious-sounding concept for a multi-region Pokémon game.
Attention to the CentroLeaks account has been so widespread that fan art has already begun to appear depicting the Pokémon species shown in the leaked artwork, likely years before any official reveal.
However, as IGN has previously stated, it’s worth treating all of the details that leaked online this week with some caution, amid claims that some logos were actually fan-made and the general acknowledgment that all the information is now at least a year out of date. Game Freak’s servers were breached in August 2024, and since then, The Pokémon Company’s plans may have changed, and certain concepts or even entire projects may have been scrapped altogether.
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have previously tried to track down the original Teraleak’s culprit, though apparently with little success judging by the massive spread of further details online this week. As for CentroLeaks, the account holder doesn’t seem particularly concerned about either company, despite their infamously litigious nature.
As of this writing, the latest update from the CentroLeaks account is a retweet of a previous one post of 2024, which simply states: “if only he knew that there is no law in Peru.”
IGN’s Pokémon Legends: ZA review is already underway if you want to check out our impressions of the first 24 hours, with the full review coming next week. If you’re jumping into Pokémon Legends ZA, select your Starter Pokémon, then check out our Pokémon Legends: ZA in Progress guide as well as our Side Mission List to make sure you don’t miss anything. We also have the Pokémon Legends: ZA Pokedex and, most importantly, a guide to all the clothing stores and clothes in Pokémon Legends: ZA, so you can catch them all in style.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s news editor. You can contact Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
