Nintendo of America has requested a subpoena for online community platform Discord as it attempts to reveal the identity of the person behind October 2024’s Pokémon ‘teraleak’.
That’s according to a legal filing obtained by Polygon, which outlines Nintendo’s efforts to learn who the leaker was. The subpoena request cites Discord user GameFreakOUT, who posted “confidential materials unreleased to the public” on a server called FreakLeak.
The request was submitted to San Francisco’s district court on April 18, 2025, with Nintendo’s legal team at Mitchell Silberberg and Knupp LLP filing the subpoena under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
An accompanying declaration by attorney James D. Berkley explains the subpoena would “order” Discord to disclose the identity, name, address, telephone number and email address of GameFreakOut.
Last October, developer Game Freak confirmed that staff data for more than 2,000 current and former employees had been breached in August 2024. This was shortly before assets and information related to the Pokémon series were widely leaked on social media.
The ‘teraleak’ encompassed a host of information on games past, present, and future in the Pokémon series, including the source code for the DS games Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver.
“The Content infringes NOA’s exclusive rights under copyright law,” says the request. “Specifically, it infringes NOA’s rights in the copyright-protected artwork, characters, and other materials related to the famous Pokémon franchise, including but not limited to videogames developed in connection with the Pokémon franchise, such as the videogame Pokémon Legends: Arceus.”
Nintendo’s request also includes an exhibit of a partially redacted screenshot from Discord including messages from the user in question.
