Topic: The Nintendo Switch Rumor and Speculation Thread

@TheBigBlue Exactly. Just shows how horrible the leaker is. Guess he took it as “proof” that these leaks were real.

@TheBigBlue Sadly, there are people with a big enough chip on their shoulder regarding Game Freak who would have done this sort of thing sooner if they had the chance/means/ability to do so.

It's a shame everyone clamouring for clicks (and this site is not innocent here) is helping extortionists. Gaming media has zero integrity lol. And it's funny how on the one hand Youtubers bemoan a video being taken down because it users emulators and how they aren't their friends...and in the next breath can't gossip about leaks quick enough (I guess that's what friends do?)

Yeah... I think the codenames and some of the history are interesting to be leaked, but when they're talking about leaking personal info that's just evil and leaking too much about not yet released games is just problematic and also not really fun.

The fact that this hack even happened at all is a little scary since they now use 2-factor authentication. That's putting it firmly in the realm of serious criminal hacking rather than some type of 'accidental' leakage; kinda hope they get caught.

If this is the truth then we should all just refuse to look at whatever else they leak. What they're doing is downright reprehensible and we shouldn't give them the satisfaction. Now inevitably some people will, but I'm certainly done following this story and I strongly suggest to everyone that sees this comment do the same. This leak doesn't deserve any further attention.

@Bolt_Strike I’m probably going to look if they leak anything honestly. It isn’t like I’m supporting the leaker by looking.

@VoidofLight I mean, if they're using the information to extort Game Freak then you kind of are supporting the leakers by looking at the data. They're threatening to spoil the data to the public (and therefore hurt their business and reputation) as a way of blackmailing them (for money I guess?). Looking at the data plays right into the blackmail, the only way we can help mitigate this scheme is to not look.

+1

This is not much different to someone dishonestly obtaining sensitive photos/video of someone and threatening to publish them. The subject didn't consent to the extorter having the material and doesn't consent to it being publicised. Anyone who seeks out the publicised material is therefore going against the wishes of the victim and supporting the extorter.

@Bolt_Strike
I agree with this sentiment although there are two things I would note here. Firstly I'd argue that the ethics of this don't really change that much based on motivation. Whether it's a disgruntled ex-employee, someone motivated by some kind of ideology, a fan trying to look through the curtains or someone looking to blackmail in the end it's still theft. So there should be inherent caution regardless of the motives

In terms of perusing this data though? Once it's out there it's out there. The question of what people choose to publish or not at that point becomes a question of journalistic ethics. Questions like whether or not the content is in the public interest, whether or not publishing could reasonably cause harm etc. This is the rumour and speculation thread, we've been talking about data from the NVidia hack for years here. So it's a similar thing here

Of course, the huge difference here is a question of content. The very first thing I saw from this hack was a screenshot which included an employee name. At that point they'd already gone well past that ethical line and were already irredeemable. But some of the other stuff, like the codename of Switch 2 which had already been discovered through Switch firmware sleuthing and some other leaks? I think that stuff is pretty fair game for discussion

The way I see it is that I’m not looking a this stuff directly from the leaker themselves, so I’m not really supporting them. If I were following them on twitter or writing an article, then that’s supporting them.

The way I look at it, is there was the difference in journalistic ethics between data breaches from saying, Nintendo or Capcpm, and Insomniac.

One was met with care and concern, the other with a layer of disregard. I'll let you work out which.

So given this is Game freak, one of the most mocked developers of our time, I wouldn't put any good money on ethics propping up the potential clicks.

It’s actually interesting seeing the beta X and Y stuff, and seeing how much Gamefreak legitimately had to compromise compared to previous gens. The game was set to have more dynamic camera angles for battles and animations that were higher quality, but seems like they cut it because of lag and the sheer amount of pokemon they were bringing into 3D.

Using a GF employee to leak personal private data is a crime and should be caught and they will as we all leave digital traces. As to game development leaks those will happen small and big but unless it was like a Nvidia T239 leak or such it's not going to change much since it's not release or in 3rd party test yet-unless they were and now someone got their dirty hands on it. As to the GF login they should be ashamed using company computers for personal reasons is why breaches happen in the first place. Yes we all do that but they also need to know what they can and can't and sites one should go to if they can't verify it's security and authenticity. So this leak is clearly fault of the GF employee and the hacker was a convenient catch all to find it.

@Novamii Any nearby Alarmos scan for possible leaks and, if detected, explode.

@Ulysses The NSO Playtest not getting many rumors is weird, but if it's true that we won't truly get this feature until 2025, it makes sense why we're not hearing that much. There's some things like the 19.0.0 Switch update messing with some GameCube controller connection and the supposed new GameCube controller releasing that seem to point to GameCube NSO, but at this point it's mostly just speculation. From what we've been hearing, this is what I understand:

• We're supposed to hear about it on the 20th (or 21st depending on region)
• The Playtest software is 2.2 GB
• Seemingly releasing 2025 (if Playtest feature is the same one as the supposed tease in the Nintendo newsletter)
• Playtest starts next week and ends on same day as earnings release

An announcement Friday could happen, but since Mario Party was Thursday it decreases the chances quite a bit. We could definitely see something on Sunday (about the NSO stuff), but not sure if this relates to the Switch Successor.

Are you seriously blaming GameFreak employees for this? Really? I've heard some garbage takes on these forums over the years but this is by far the most offensive

@SwitchForce It’s insanely insensitive to point the finger at a Gamefreak employee over a databreach. That’s not how these sorts of things work, and most of the employees are just doing their job. People can get into servers of a company without someone “browsing the internet” on a work computer. Data can be compromised in many other ways.

Crikey, I'd already forgotten about the playtest, and I'm registered to take part!

This is the week, right?

Word round the campfire is that Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 + 4 is getting announced on March 4th.