The investigation as to who managed to leak the Pokemon Sword and Shield guidebook continues. As reported upon last month, The Pokemon Company International took the initial steps to begin a lawsuit against a group of users who managed to leak images pertaining to Pokemon Sword and Shield, weeks prior to release. These images originated from an official guidebook, with the contents so closely guarded, that it released a week after the aforementioned games. When the images were shared online and went viral, The Pokemon Company and its representing law firm claimed that it caused "irreparable injury" to the company and brand. Previously, they were seeking a subpoena against both Discord and 4Chan, where the leaks supposedly originated. The motion has now been granted, and both sites/services will now be required to give any information that could lead to the identification of the three leakers.

Before the Court is Plaintiff The Pokémon Company International, Inc.’s (“TPCi”) Ex Parte Motion for Expedited Discovery. Having considered TPCi’s Motion and all other pleadings and papers on file in this matter, this Court hereby GRANTS the Motion. TPCi may serve subpoenas on Discord, 4chan, and DimensioNz#3307 before the Parties’ Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f) conference.

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Tags: [COMPANY=/company/the-pokemon-company-international]The Pokémon Company International[/COMPANY]

 

[samcambolt270]

I don't understand what the hell the grounds is for damages here. How exactly is showing some of the game early "damage the sales" of the, so far, record breaking entry into one of the most lucrative franchise in the world. Especially after everything the leak showed had already been released aside from which specific mons were in or out. What lost sales could have occurred are minimal if any, and the vast vast majority had already made the decision on whether to purchase or not regardless of the new info.

 

[FAST6191]

I don't understand what the hell the grounds is for damages here. How exactly is showing some of the game early "damage the sales" of the, so far, record breaking entry into one of the most lucrative franchise in the world. Especially after everything the leak showed had already been released aside from which specific mons were in or out. What lost sales could have occurred are minimal if any, and the vast vast majority had already made the decision on whether to purchase or not regardless of the new info.

If you are one of the marketing slimes of the world then uncontrolled/unmanaged release of damaging information is definitely the sort of thing you don't yell at your underlings for waking you up at 3am to handle. A negative perception or air as you go into release of something, more so if unwarranted but even warranted can play, has been shown to harm any number of works (being a game in [current year] then it probably could also be said to make most of its money in the early days) over possibly centuries at this point but in the high decades/longer than anybody ever likely to read this has been alive (the 1920s seeing Edward Bernays take things to something more resembling modern PR and advertising).
Record breaking or not if you can demonstrate slowdown in preorders, lower sales with certain demographics and more besides then at some level it could be said to have damaged things (though whether a court of law assigns it any value, or more than a token $5 or something, is a different matter). Even if it was already known then some might make the case that a high value source offering confirmation (as opposed to rumours and speculation), and it would be a time restricted work as well, and the specifics thing does also matter here (without it then it is somewhat nebulous, with it then people clearly coalesced and formed some rage).

Again I think this is very much the wrong way to go about it -- if the leaked images clearly show Jim's watch in the shot then figure out the person in question, or maybe just company, and nail them for breach of contract if you want but taking this sort of path is both odd from a legal perspective in the case of the specifics and not likely to win you any good PR. Otherwise take your licks, build a better product next time and see about issuing some corrective marketing (either focus discussion or give copies to starving orphan aids suffering whales).