Someone, somewhere has uploaded a complete copy of both Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet online. Those with modded Switches and emulators have already begun playing, and one such person was bold enough to begin live-streaming the games...
Oof. This is not a good look for Nintendo, especially as so many hopes were riding on Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. In fact, it's about as embarrassing as Rockstar being hacked by a 17-year-old, but it's still not quite as bad as Sonic Frontiers being stolen from an expo booth... with the help of staff. The state of modern gaming...
Anyway, let's get to what you care about: how the hell are Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet already available to download online, and what happened to the streamer who was sharing gameplay? Let's take a look.
Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Are being Openly Shared Online
Leaked copies of both Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have been uploaded and shared online, for those with modded Switches and emulators on their PC. The full games are both downloadable if you have the torrent link, which is being shared openly on 4chan and through Twitter. Sorry guys, we aren't going to share the link with you. You'll have to find that info yourself.
We don't yet know who got hold of these games and chose to leak them, but presumably it has to be someone working on the "inside", unless it was a hack. We simply don't know yet, but you can bet that Nintendo are summoning an army of investigators and lawyers to find out. RIP.
How about paying for a quality new game rather than downloading an unreleased one?
Unknown Streamer Shares Gameplay On Twitch & Trovo
An account using the name "puff_noobalt" on Twitch and "reeeetardkun" on Trovo (a more lawless Twitch) began live-streaming gameplay from their leaked copy of Pokémon Scarlet on November 9. The stream lasted for about 30 minutes on Twitch before they were banned, but it lasted for hours upon hours on Trovo, and so pretty much everyone got to see the game.
Thankfully, it looked like a good game, so Nintendo can at least be happy about that. We won't be sharing any footage (for obvious reason), but if you want to see what these games look like it's now very easy, as hundreds of clips from the livestream have ended up on YouTube.
Are leaks like this "fair game" or are you disappointed to see streamers revealing the game ahead of release? We can't say we're surprised, we're just hoping they include all the best Pokémon in the game...