Last year’s Pokémon hack has resurfaced with even more secret info concerning multiple new games, including Generation 10 and 11.
This time last year, Pokémon developer Game Freak was targeted by hackers, who reportedly stole a lot of confidential information related to the franchise and leaked it online.
Dubbed the ‘teraleak,’ it included source code for old games and some admittedly vague details on unannounced projects, such as the next generation of Pokémon games – Generation 10 – to follow Pokémon Scarlet & Violet.
It turns out that wasn’t all the information the hackers had, as they’ve now released even more, not just related to Generation 10 but also Game Freak’s plans for the next five years of Pokémon games.
Obviously, given the sensitivity of the information, we cannot share any of the leaked documents, video footage, or images contained in the leak, but you should be able to find them yourself quite easily.
The leaked info covers plans for Generation 10, Generation 11 (which is apparently scheduled for 2030), another Pokémon Legends game, and something called Project Seed.
The Generation 10 details line up with leaked info from earlier this year, which claimed that the next Pokémon game will be an ‘oceanic adventure’ set in a region inspired by Greece.
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However, based on the newer info, it’s now believed the region is instead based on Indonesia and Southeast Asia. What’s more, Generation 10’s official title is believed to be Pokémon Wind and Waves, and it will feature more MMO-esque mechanics.
The leak includes footage of an underwater section, which is not something that’s been in a 3D Pokémon game before.
There’s very little, if any info regarding Generation 11, beyond its target release window. As for the next Legends game, it will apparently take place in the Galar region from Pokémon Sword and Shield, but in the distant past, just like Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
As a reminder, Galar is based on the UK, so you can probably expect even more allusions to Arthurian legend.
The game will also apparently draw some inspiration from Xenoblade Chronicles X, which is also often compared to an MMO, since that game was used as part of the initial pitch – though exactly how similar it might be is unclear.
Project Seed is the most intriguing title of the leak, as it’s being described as an online multi-region remake that would include the regions of the first four Pokémon games – Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh – and let you explore all of them as a single open world.
Budgets for Pokémon Legends: Z-A (which launches this week and also suffered a separate leak of its own) and Generation 10 were also included. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it turns out Pokémon games are extremely cheap to make, with the former budgeted at two billion yen (about £9 million) and the latter at three billion yen (about £14 million).
Game development budgets are typically kept under wraps, but these are far smaller than any recorded budgets for other multimillion dollar franchises. Remember, the Pokémon games are among the best-selling games of all time, alongside franchises like Call Of Duty, which cost hundreds of millions to make.
It’s worth pointing out that this information appears to rely on documentation that’s several years’ old, so it is entirely possible plans for all these leaked games have drastically changed since then. Or that they will be changed now that everything’s been leaked.
In fact, the leak itself supports that, since it mentions plans for a Pokémon Legends game set in a past version of the Johto region, which was aiming for a 2024 launch to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Pokémon Gold and Silver.
That never happened and was replaced by Pokémon Legends: Z-A, which has a more modern setting and takes place in Pokémon X and Y’s Kalos region.
It may be too late to do anything about Generation 10, since it’s supposedly coming out next year to coincide with Pokémon’s 30th anniversary, but projects like Generation 11 and Project Seed may be overhauled or even cancelled.
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