As you all know, Pokémon Sword and Shield suffered several important leaks of its content before its launch. This is obviously something that most players do not like, but it was not clear who had been responsible. Recently, new data on this fact has been shared.
It turns out that one of the leakers that leaked information from Pokémon Sword and Shield is a contributor to Nintendo, a Portuguese media that shares news and analysis of Nintendo. This media received a copy of the game to analyze from Nintendo Ibérica (which includes Portugal and Spain). Well, FNintendo has shared a statement to explain what happened (in Portuguese and English) and you can read it below (translated into Spanish):
In early November, a series of photographs leaked multiple new and unannounced Pokémon from Sword and Shield Pokémon. We want to take this opportunity to openly admit with our readers that FNintendo was responsible for filtering some of these photos.
Nintendo offered us a copy of the game to analyze it, with clear embargo guidelines that we accept. This copy was sent to one of our analysts, who leaked the information. After the investigation, FNintendo ended its relationship with this analyst.
Our relationship with Nintendo Portugal dates back to 11 years, but our part in this leak is a clear violation of the confidentiality agreement between us and, as a result, a total breach of trust with Nintendo.
We recognize that it is inadmissible to break the embargo guidelines and we do not handle the analysis materials with sufficient care. We fully respect Nintendo's decision to cancel the confidentiality agreement between our companies as a result of this breach of trust, and we accept that we will no longer receive Nintendo products or be invited to attend its events.
We want to apologize to Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, and to our readers for disappointing them.
We also leave you with the message of Nintendo and The Pokémon Company:
In early November, Nintendo identified a series of photographs taken of the game that revealed multiple new and unannounced Pokémon from Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. These photographs were published online and Nintendo, along with The Pokémon Company, quickly identified the person responsible for these leaks and took immediate action.
These Pokémon were filtered by an analyst from the Portuguese website FNintendo, who had received a copy in advance of the game for analysis purposes. Both he and FNintendo could not handle the confidential material, which resulted in a clear violation of the confidentiality agreement between Nintendo and the media. As a result, Nintendo will no longer collaborate with FNintendo.
Nintendo will always protect your intellectual property and its brands. The leaks not only harm Nintendo, but the thousands of employees who work hard to bring the games to market, and the millions of fans around the world who expect news and surprises.
Surprising and delighting players through new experiences is a passion shared by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. We will follow all paths to preserve surprises for players with future Pokémon titles.
Although when leaks occur these are usually counterproductive, in this case it seems not to have affected the success of Pokémon Sword and Shield, since, as we inform you, both deliveries seem to be willing to break all the sales records and for to have. Pokémon Sword and Shield has sold 16.06 million units in just 3 months since its launch. This tells us that the title is selling at a faster rate than all the Pokémon titles released for Nintendo 3DS.
What do you think?