Nintendo experienced a series of unauthorized data disclosures beginning in March 2018 and peaking with the July 24, 2020 “Gigaleak,” which released roughly 3 gigabytes of material from systems and games spanning the late 1980s onward. The files included console source code, development repositories, unreleased prototypes, debug builds, internal tools, manufacturing software and personal developer records. The material exposed projects related to the NES, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Wii, Game Boy, Nintendo DS, 3DS and Switch, creating intellectual-property, employee-privacy and software-security risks. Developers of the Dolphin emulator said they would not use the leaked code because doing so could expose the project to legal action.
The precise source of every disclosure was not established in the supplied record. Reporting linked some 2018 thefts to British hacker Zammis Clark, who pleaded guilty in 2019 to hacking Microsoft and Nintendo servers and received a suspended 15-month sentence; Ryan Hernandez separately pleaded guilty in January 2020 to stealing Nintendo information. In June 2022, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa acknowledged the leaks and said the company had introduced information-security management with outside experts. A separate August 2024 breach at Game Freak, confirmed by the studio, produced the “Teraleak,” including Pokémon development assets and staff personal information, extending the security and privacy fallout across Nintendo’s principal franchise ecosystem.
