The owner of a high-profile social media account dedicated to sharing Pokémon leaks has boasted of having numerous images removed by The Pokémon Company today in response to copyright claims — something they say only proves the leaked details are legitimate.
Copyright removals have now hit a long list of posts by CentroLeaks, an X account that this week shared dozens of images said to originate from the infamous Pokémon "Teraleak" of data, originally hacked from the servers of developer Game Freak last year.
While not the source of the Teraleak itself, CentroLeaks has played a pivotal role in publicising its contents, sharing images from beta builds of this week's Pokémon Legends: Z-A, to eye-opening details of unannounced games allegedly set to launch over the rest of the decade. Neither Nintendo nor The Pokémon Company have responded to IGN's request for comment.
"Funnily enough they took the bait," CentroLeaks posted this morning, stating that The Pokémon Company was behind the removal of numerous images that appeared to detail upcoming projects, including next year's unannounced but highly-anticipated "Gen 10" Switch 2 games.
"Mr. Takato Utsunomiya, the Chief Operating Officer of The Pokémon Company, has personally sent an email to Centro Leaks / X to take down the Pokémon leak images," another post by the account stated, later sharing what appeared to be a formal demand for a long list of posts to be removed as they contained "copyrighted works (illustrations) of the characters from the Pokémon video game series... reproduced and distributed to the public without our permission."
Details of a further set of Mega Pokémon coming in Legends Z-A's $20 DLC are among the images that have been removed, the account noted. "I guess Game Freak also confirmed the returning Pokémon list in the Legends: Z-A DLC is real," CentroLeaks said.
Other removed images included concept art and early screenshots purported to show various upcoming Pokémon projects, including the Gen 10 games, a third Pokémon Legends title, and an ambitious sounding concept for a Pokémon game spanning multiple regions.
Attention to CentroLeaks' account has been so widespread that fan art has already started to spring up of Pokémon species shown in the leaked art, likely years before any official reveal.
However, as IGN has stated previously, it is worth treating all of the details leaked online this week with a measure of caution, amid claims that some logos were in fact fan-made, and a general acknowledgement that all of the information is now a year out of date at the very least. Game Freak's servers were breached in August 2024, and The Pokémon Company's plans may have since changed, with specific concepts or indeed entire projects potentially scrapped altogether.
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have previously attempted to track down the culprit behind the original Teraleak, though seemingly have not had much success, judging by the huge spread of further details online this week. As for CentroLeaks, the account's owner does not seem particularly concerned by either company, despite their infamously litgious nature.
At the time of writing, the most recent update on the CentroLeaks account is a retweet of a previous post from 2024, which simply states: "if only he knew that laws don't exist in Peru."
IGN's review-in-progress of Pokémon Legends: Z-A is now live, if you want to check out our impressions of the first 24 hours, with a full review coming next week. If you're jumping into Pokémon Legends Z-A, choose your Starter Pokémon, then check out our in-progress Pokémon Legends: Z-A Walkthrough, plus our Side Missions List to make sure you don't miss anything. We've also got a Pokémon Legends: Z-A Pokedex, and most importantly, a guide to All Clothing Stores and Clothing in Pokémon Legends: Z-A so you can catch 'em all in style.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
