Twitch users are already live streaming Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl ten days before their official release.
DespiteThe Pokémon Company’s typical secrecy around its upcoming launches, and no press reviews or final impressions having been published, Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl are very much in the public domain this week.
Last weekend a Reddit userobtained a North American copy of the remakesand proceeded to post several pictures and a video of it in action.
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This then opened the flood gates as ROMs for the two games reportedly appeared online, and social media started circulating media from the two games.
Even more damning for The Pokémon Company’s battle against leaks is the fact that, at the time of publishing,at least five Twitch users are live streaming the final gamesto an audience of hundreds.
Nintendoor TPC will likely shut down the streams once they’re discovered, but at the time of publishing at least one of them has been broadcasting for almost 90 minutes.
The pre-release leaks represent yet another setback for the typically secretive Pokémon Company, which has suffered from numerous high profile information breaches in recent years, with some even resulting in legal action.
The most high-profile incident occurred last year whenNintendo publicly cut ties with a Portuguese websiteafter it was found to have been behind some pre-launch Pokémon Sword and Shield leaks.
lol it turns out this time the ROM for both Diamond and Pearl is the same, you can easily change to the other version via a patch / changing some bytes in the file.pic.twitter.com/HXuc29oiVH
#PokemonBrilliantDiamondOh Shit#pokemonleaks😬pic.twitter.com/GUX3GpVep5
All of the character customization options in BDSP, including skin tone variations.pic.twitter.com/3c8cC98i12
In a statement, website FNintendo admitted it was responsible for uploading a series of off-screen photographs which leaked multiple new and unannounced Pokémon before the official release of Sword and Shield.
In a statement, the website claimed it had severed ties with the reviewer who leaked the Pokémon images, but accepted it would no longer receive products from Nintendo, nor be invited to its events.
In the US,The Pokémon Company sued unidentified individualsover furtherPokémon Sword and Pokémon Shieldleaks prior to the game’s release.
In December 2019, TPC wasgiven permissionto subpoena the identities of Discord and 4Chan users allegedly behind the leaks, leaving the two platforms no choice but to hand over personal details of the individuals in question. Two men were laterordered to pay $150,000 eachto The Pokémon Company for leaking images.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearlwere officially announced in February and are remakes of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, which were released on theNintendo DSin 2006.
