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The Pokemon Company suing Sword & Shield leakers, citing "irreparable injury" to the franchise

Saber

Member
Cliffnotes Version:

- Game Freak said they removed a gigantic chunk of pokemon from this game to create better models and animations for each one which ended up being a lie: They're practically identical in polygonal/tri structure complexity to the last 3DS iterations, Sun and Moon, which had WAY more pokemon than this game, they just slapped better textures on them, and the move animations are still just as primitive and lacking as always.

- Even the trainer and NPC animations are lifted and recycled out of Sun and Moon as well.

- Shortest pokemon game to play through in a long time. Extremely light on meaningful content even compared to the DS/3DS games.

- A complete ignorance to push the series in a new and refreshing direction or adding game-changing features and tweaks despite having vastly more powerful hardware than previous systems.

- Terrible online play when teaming up with randoms. Raids are inconsistent to join as well unless you're playing with friends.

Just to add, they also remove GTS(Global Trading System).
Which people only knew this was removed thanks to the leaks. Pokemon Conpany omited that info.
 
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They are trying too hard to hide the problems by trying to get more money out of those who shown off the problems. It was bound to happen when the game released anyway.

Hope they don't win.
 
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Evil Calvin

Afraid of Boobs
The article states that the 'leakers' on Discord leaked images from a STRATEGY GUIDE. Since when are fucking books embargoed?
 

StormCell

Member
Cliffnotes Version:

- Game Freak said they removed a gigantic chunk of pokemon from this game to create better models and animations for each one which ended up being a lie: They're practically identical in polygonal/tri structure complexity to the last 3DS iterations, Sun and Moon, which had WAY more pokemon than this game, they just slapped better textures on them, and the move animations are still just as primitive and lacking as always.

- Even the trainer and NPC animations are lifted and recycled out of Sun and Moon as well.

- Shortest pokemon game to play through in a long time. Extremely light on meaningful content even compared to the DS/3DS games.

- A complete ignorance to push the series in a new and refreshing direction or adding game-changing features and tweaks despite having vastly more powerful hardware than previous systems.

- Terrible online play when teaming up with randoms. Raids are inconsistent to join as well unless you're playing with friends.

Some of this is subjective at best and overblown at worst. The first two points are a fact, but the third point is meh. It doesn't feel short. I'm not trying to rush through the gyms, which I'm sure I could but that has less to do with the game. I find the structure of this game to be more meaningful than what I've found in other recent Pokemon games. The story is at least more interesting. The presentation is much better than Sun/Moon, and I haven't found myself mashing buttons hoping for the cut scenes to end. As far as the lies are concerned, that's all stuff that the executives are having their marketing people spin and nothing to do with what the dev team is intending for us to have to hear. I'll defend my fellow devs on most of these points because they get no say into what they are working on as far as time and budget is concerned.

I don't understand this "complete ignorance to push the series in a new direction ... despite having vastly more powerful hardware." What I'm experiencing in the game is at least engaging and actually fun. FWIW I feel like the project manager(s) and dev team had good ideas. Please follow me this far. I think the guys actually working on these games had good stuff in mind for us players. The wild areas are where this game is the most fun. The cooking system saves us from dumbass sprints back to a poke center, etc. If any of this stuff looks half-baked or gimped, it's because upper management/executives didn't want to spend more money polishing the new concepts.

So yeah, hate for Game Freak is completely warranted. Hate for Sword and Shield is kind of eh. The games are actually more fun than Sun/Moon could ever be. I hated those games. I'm having as much fun with these as I did Ruby/Sapphire. I'm not a diehard Poke fan, though, and I can see the cut corners on this game as clearly as anyone. I can forgive the limited budget the team had to work with since the game plays well (ie. Might and Magic 7 was a gem in spite of the incredibly dated engine, etc).

I can't fathom why Game Freak seems to be dragging their feet on the Switch. They have totally botched their support for this platform. I've seen them quoted as having expected the Switch to totally fail, and thus they weren't even working on a Switch title at the time of Ultra Sun/Moon's reveal, which is just about unforgivable IMO. I don't think they even want to make Switch exclusive games, and I kind of doubt they even want to continue making Pokemon. I think they must be getting checks from The Pokemon Company for Niantic's work on Pokemon Go. It's the only way I can figure they've got shit tons of money and no desire to make new Pokemon games....
 
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Zog

Banned
If not for the leakers Game Freak may have been able to sucker a few million more people than they did into buying these games. As for their reputation, well that was going to be injured with or without the leaks.
 

Zog

Banned
can someone tl;dr why the hate on sword and shield? I must have missed it
Google is your friend. Actually, no they aren't. No corporation is your friend but Google would have helped you with this answer.

Quickly though, They lied about the reason that they cut so many Pokemon from the game. They said it was because they made new animations and that it would be too much work to make new animations for them all. Turns out, they just copied the animations from the 3DS games.
 
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Lawl. They thought they'd control the narrative. Hide the game until your shill reviewers can put out the whitewash 9/10s. Thatd be the first thing we all saw about the games.

Guess they didnt realise internet exists
 

Fake

Member
R4UMrRt_d.jpg
 

Nydius

Member
This lawsuit sounds like someone at TPC called up Nintendo and asked them for a their roadmap on suing emulator/rom sites. Long run, it probably won't damage their image too much but in the short term I hope they're ready for a lot of egg on their face as the issues with Sword and Shield are put officially on-the-record in this suit.


Some of this is subjective at best and overblown at worst.

The only one of Juke Joint Jezebel's points that could be considered subjective is point number four. Everything else is objective fact. They did copy/paste most of the animations in the game. They did cut the Pokedex by half, over a hundred moves, and other core gameplay components despite no longer having 3DS limitations. It is the shortest Pokemon game since the original Red/Blue/Yellow days on the original Gameboy. Online connectivity is widely lamented as awful, even by positive reviews, and recently found exploit make online raids a complete clusterfuck.

If you want to talk about "subjective", your entire post boils down to "I'm having fun, so I don't think the hate is warranted."
 
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Saber

Member
The only one of Juke Joint Jezebel's points that could be considered subjective is point number four. Everything else is objective fact. They did copy/paste most of the animations in the game. They did cut the Pokedex by half, over a hundred moves, and other core gameplay components despite no longer having 3DS limitations. It is the shortest Pokemon game since the original Red/Blue/Yellow days on the original Gameboy. Online connectivity is widely lamented as awful, even by positive reviews, and recently found exploit make online raids a complete clusterfuck.

It feels like most of people like him try to going on circles with any proved fact by using the fun term, as if anything wrong GF did can be forgiven as long they find joy. As I said, people can find fun in pratically any game. It doesn't mean the game is devoid of any criticism, even worse when a company already proved to be lying when most of other companies are crucified when they do so.

Reminds me of my time on Sega Forums when every often people go there creating a thread asking "whats wrong with people" or "why so much hate", saying that Sonic 06 is a fun game.
 

StormCell

Member
It feels like most of people like him try to going on circles with any proved fact by using the fun term, as if anything wrong GF did can be forgiven as long they find joy. As I said, people can find fun in pratically any game. It doesn't mean the game is devoid of any criticism, even worse when a company already proved to be lying when most of other companies are crucified when they do so.

Reminds me of my time on Sega Forums when every often people go there creating a thread asking "whats wrong with people" or "why so much hate", saying that Sonic 06 is a fun game.

Never said anything about it being devoid of criticism. There's plenty of blemishes. I simply want to try to guide the hate more toward Game Freak when I see statements like "lazy devs" and "half-assed effort." The game reeks of not having enough budget for the artists and modelers. It's abhorrent that Game Freak made up total fabrications about the pokemon models and didn't even allot enough budget to give the developers proper animations for all the moves. That's not the doings of malevolent devs. It's the result of stingy and, dare I say, borderline incompetent executive management.

And in spite of all that, it's still a good game. It's one of the better Pokemon games in a long time. Although, personally, I'd rather they just offer an upscaled version of Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire. That would suffice.
 
I'd rather they just offer an upscaled version of Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire. That would suffice.

Those games are solid titles in the franchise 100% Still keep my 3DS on my to play them. I mean that's all the community really wanted back when sun & moon were a thing people thought that Stars would have been the switch version or something.

Instead we get lame games with cut content that somehow look worse than the lets go games before them LOL
 
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StormCell

Member
Those games are solid titles in the franchise 100% Still keep my 3DS on my to play them. I mean that's all the community really wanted back when sun & moon were a thing people thought that Stars would have been the switch version or something.

Instead we get lame games with cut content that somehow look worse than the lets go games before them LOL

It's a sad truth. Sword/Shield has it's moments, though. The early towns look really nice, and there's more diversity in the places that you battle -- it used to be you got one battle backdrop for each type of environment.

I would have gladly accepted a Pokemon Stars game that was nothing more than an upscaled Sun/Moon. The truth is that I've totally grown out of playing these games while looking down at a screen in my hands, and this is partly why I'm having a stellar time with Sword/Shield on my TV. Let's Go was a mild slap in the face, and I skipped it. This (Sword/Shield) is a real a Pokemon game at least. That's about all I can say for the positives.

I'd like to see Nintendo ninjas brutalizing the Game Freak HQ via security cam footage. I would drop $60 to own that video.

PS. People have been bitching about Game Freak's lack of graphical fidelity since Ruby/Sapphire on GBA.
 
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Joint statement from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company

In early November, Nintendo identified a number of photographs taken from game play that revealed multiple new and unannounced Pokémon from Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. These photographs had been posted online and Nintendo, together with The Pokémon Company, quickly identified the person responsible for these leaks, and took immediate action.
These Pokémon were leaked by a reviewer for the Portuguese website FNintendo, who had received an early copy of the game for review purposes. Both he and FNintendo failed to handle confidential material, resulting in a clear breach of the confidentiality agreement between Nintendo and the media outlet. As a result, Nintendo will no longer work with FNintendo.

Nintendo will always protect its intellectual property and brands. Leaks hurt not just Nintendo, but the thousands of employees who work hard to bring games to market, and the millions of fans around the world who look forward to news and surprises.

To surprise and delight players through new experiences is a shared passion for Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. We will pursue all avenues to preserve surprises for players of future Pokémon titles.

LOL
 
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Lanrutcon

Member
I don't get it. Reviewer failed to honor an agreement between them and Nintendo by leaking confidential information and they sued him so TPC and Nintendo are the bad guys somehow?

I don't get it. Reviewer leaked some images and Nintendo are shouting irreparable injury while pursuing legal action over a game that is selling like hot cakes and Nintendo aren't complete douches somehow?
 

MagnesG

Banned
I don't get it. Reviewer leaked some images and Nintendo are shouting irreparable injury while pursuing legal action over a game that is selling like hot cakes and Nintendo aren't complete douches somehow?
So reviewers get to leak images and breach their embargo as long as the game is regarded "shit" then causes drama?
 
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MagnesG

Banned
So reviewers leaking images qualify as "irreparable injury" while the game in question is setting sales records for the platform?
Yes, it doesn't matter the game's bomb or not, a breach is still a breach, thus relationship is cut. Estimates of damages doesn't count on the success of the product.

As for "irreparable injury", that's a buzzword any company/person could spew out whenever their interest is endangered, and rightfully so.

I really don't want to get into the moral standpoint, "douche or not" when a high risk breach happened.
 
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Lanrutcon

Member
Yes, it doesn't matter the game's bomb or not, a breach is still a breach, thus relationship is cut. Estimates of damages doesn't count on the success of the product.

As for "irreparable injury", that's a buzzword any company/person could spew out whenever their interest is endangered, and rightfully so.

I really don't want to get into the moral standpoint, "douche or not" when a high risk breach happened.

So a) if "interests are endangered" by giving your consumers an advanced showing of a few assets then you've got bigger issues and b) calling this a "high risk breach" is fucking laughable.

This is Nintendo being douches in my opinion. It's got nothing to do with morality, and everything to do with a greedy corporation being a greedy corporation.
 

Quezacolt

Member
So a) if "interests are endangered" by giving your consumers an advanced showing of a few assets then you've got bigger issues and b) calling this a "high risk breach" is fucking laughable.

This is Nintendo being douches in my opinion. It's got nothing to do with morality, and everything to do with a greedy corporation being a greedy corporation.
Greedy or not, it's in their right, If i made a game, i wouldnt want stuff to be leaked either. Anyway, in this case, if they hadnt shown that there's consequences from breaking the NDA, then other websites would start leaking stuff from review copies too.
 

MagnesG

Banned
So a) if "interests are endangered" by giving your consumers an advanced showing of a few assets then you've got bigger issues and b) calling this a "high risk breach" is fucking laughable.

This is Nintendo being douches in my opinion. It's got nothing to do with morality, and everything to do with a greedy corporation being a greedy corporation.
It's not, you fucking breach a contract then you break the law, simple as that. You get to be showed and reviewed a game pre launch, not publicly upload them online! At least post the pictures on 4chan + VPN or something, at least be a tad more smart than blindly posting discord.
I guess people are only gonna stop when they get sued themselves. The world is not all rainbows and sunshines.
 

Lanrutcon

Member
It's not, you fucking breach a contract then you break the law, simple as that. You get to be showed and reviewed a game pre launch, not publicly upload them online! At least post the pictures on 4chan + VPN or something, at least be a tad more smart than blindly posting discord.

You're right. Given the stakes involved here, he should totally have used a false identity and a burner phone to upload those images of fictional creatures meant for children's entertainment. What was he thinking.

The world is not all rainbows and sunshines.

Exactly. So we need to call out the bullshit corporations do. They have legal teams to defend them. They don't need a defense force.
 

Shin

Banned
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MagnesG

Banned
You're right. Given the stakes involved here, he should totally have used a false identity and a burner phone to upload those images of fictional creatures meant for children's entertainment. What was he thinking.



Exactly. So we need to call out the bullshit corporations do. They have legal teams to defend them. They don't need a defense force.
That's not how the world works.:messenger_downcast_sweat:
 

Ascend

Member
I've got enough of this brand abuse. And it's not the first time that the Pokemon Company is being a douche simply because they want to, I mean, look at this;

And it's not as if Pokemon Sword/Shield did worse this time compared to previous generations. It did better than it deserved. There is zero evidence that this caused any damage. They make a habit of claiming damage, just to gain money from wherever they can. Thankfully, sometimes courts do their jobs properly;

I'm deleting everything Pokemon from my Phone right now. Goodbye Pokemon GO, Goodbye Pokemon Masters, Goodbye Pokemon Shuffle, Goodbye Pokemon Duel. I'm really glad I didn't buy a Switch just for Sword & Shield. I cannot support Pokemon anymore. I should be thankful. My time will go into more important things now.
 

Saber

Member
Oh the evil caused by a leak of their game. Please protect us from the evil, fans. We are just happy givers who have no intention to make money.

By the way, shut the fuck up and buy our Season passes you dumb bitches.

I don't get it. Reviewer failed to honor an agreement between them and Nintendo by leaking confidential information and they sued him so TPC and Nintendo are the bad guys somehow?

How many times Pokemon games are leaked(you can count if you wish LOL)? And since when this ever caused "irreparable damage"?
 
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FNintendo released a statement, translated it says:

To our readers,

At the beginning of November, a series of off-screen photographs leaked multiple new and unannounced Pokémon from Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. We want to take this opportunity to openly admit to our readers that FNintendo was responsible for leaking some of these photos.

Nintendo offered us a copy of the game for review purposes, with clear embargo guidelines, to which we agreed. This copy was then sent to one of our reviewers, who leaked the information. Following the investigation, FNintendo severed its relationship with this reviewer.
Our relationship with Nintendo Portugal dates back 11 years, but our part in this leak is a clear breach of the confidentiality agreement between us, and, as a result, a total breach of trust with Nintendo. We recognise it is impermissible to break embargo guidelines and we failed to handle the review 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 accept that we will no longer receive products from Nintendo, nor will we be invited to attend their events.

We want to apologise to Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, and to our readers for letting them down.

FNintendo
 
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Shaqazooloo

Member
I've got enough of this brand abuse. And it's not the first time that the Pokemon Company is being a douche simply because they want to, I mean, look at this;

And it's not as if Pokemon Sword/Shield did worse this time compared to previous generations. It did better than it deserved. There is zero evidence that this caused any damage. They make a habit of claiming damage, just to gain money from wherever they can. Thankfully, sometimes courts do their jobs properly;

I'm deleting everything Pokemon from my Phone right now. Goodbye Pokemon GO, Goodbye Pokemon Masters, Goodbye Pokemon Shuffle, Goodbye Pokemon Duel. I'm really glad I didn't buy a Switch just for Sword & Shield. I cannot support Pokemon anymore. I should be thankful. My time will go into more important things now.
Pokémon Shuffle and Go shouldn't have been on your phone to begin with.
 

Shaqazooloo

Member
Oh the evil caused by a leak of their game. Please protect us from the evil, fans. We are just happy givers who have no intention to make money.
Media outlet that breaks NDA is not the same thing as a fan leaking the game.


How many times Pokemon games are leaked(you can count if you wish LOL)? And since when this ever caused "irreparable damage"?
The damage in this context would be revealing info that Nintendo/Pokémon Company don't want revealed early which can impact advertising?

I don't think damage in this context relates to sales of the game.
They should be apologizing for delivering a game is this trash state. Any other company would be hunted down for less.
The game is decent in my opinion.
 
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