Gaming Industry Drama: Nintendo Cracks Down on Leaks, Young Sherlock Adds to Cast, and Pokémon Bans Contest Entrants

Nintendo is cracking down on leaks amidst gaming industry drama, while Guy Ritchie's Young Sherlock series adds to its cast and the Pokémon Company bans contest entrants after a suspected AI art scandal.
Gaming Industry Drama: Nintendo Cracks Down on Leaks, Young Sherlock Adds to Cast, and Pokémon Bans Contest Entrants

Nintendo Cracks Down on Leaks Amidst Gaming Industry Drama

The gaming industry has been abuzz with drama lately, and Nintendo is taking steps to ensure that their secrets stay safe. Following recent reports of major announcements being scrapped from YouTube’s backend ahead of major Directs, the company is working to beef up its security and IT training.

During its annual shareholder meeting, Nintendo acknowledged the reports and said the company was using outside security firms, new security system measures, and employee training to address the issues around leaks. While the company didn’t go into specifics about how it’s plugging the leaks, fans have been speculating about what steps Nintendo is taking ever since the latest implosion of an online gaming leaker last week.

Image: Nintendo Switch

The leaker, known as Pyoro, was one of the last remaining leakers who seemed to at least occasionally have solid sources of information. However, they came up surprisingly dry ahead of the big June Nintendo Direct, where the company surprise-revealed a ton of first-party projects, including a brand-new Mario & Luigi RPG and a top-down The Legend of Zelda starring, for the first time, a playable princess.

The news dump contradicted Pyoro’s vague expectation-setting ahead of time, and seemed to expose them as out of information. Bloomberg reported at the time that fans quickly realized that unlike previous Nintendo Directs, many of the games announced didn’t immediately have store pages go live on the eShop, suggesting that perhaps backend data from those listings was part of how Pyoro had been getting their information.

Image: Nintendo Direct

Pyoro then took the incredibly odd step of leaking their own source to Bloomberg, stating that source was a Nintendo employee in Japan and that the “backend theory is a reasonable guess” about where that person got their information from. Even more surprisingly, Pyoro later locked their account after stating they hadn’t expected their comments to a reporter to be included in a news article.

Store pages for the games announced last week have only recently started going live, including the one revealing the unexpected $60 premium for Donkey Kong Country Returns HD. It’s possible that this is one of the steps Nintendo is taking to crack down on leaks, alongside potentially shifting how it engages with video hosting services like YouTube.

Image: Donkey Kong Country Returns HD

In other news, Guy Ritchie’s Young Sherlock series has added Joseph Fiennes and Natascha McElhone to the cast as Sherlock’s parents. The series, which follows a nineteen-year-old Sherlock, known as a disgraced, raw, unfiltered, and unformed genius, is set to premiere on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

Image: Young Sherlock

Meanwhile, the Pokémon Company has banned contest entrants after a suspected AI art scandal. The company had run an illustration contest with prizes of up to $5,000, and the top three designs would be made into real Pokémon TCG cards. However, the judges of the competition came under fire after it appeared that several finalists had broken the rules.

Image: Pokémon TCG

The company has now admitted that a violation of the rules has occurred and that the offending pictures will be disqualified. An official statement reads: “We are aware that select entrants from the top 300 finalists of the Pokémon TCG Illustration Contest 2024 have violated the official contest rules. As a result, entrants in violation of the rules have been disqualified from the contest. Furthermore, additional artists participating in the contest will soon be selected to be among the top 300 finalists.”

Image: Pokémon

The gaming industry is no stranger to drama, but it’s clear that companies are taking steps to protect their intellectual property and maintain the integrity of their contests and competitions. As the industry continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how companies adapt to the changing landscape and the threats that come with it.