Pokémon hack reveals future games, beta designs and more

Pokémon developer Game Freak has confirmed that its servers were hacked in August. The breach led to internal materials – from source codes to early and even scrapped character designs – circulating on social media over the weekend.

Leaked documents and images flooded Reddit and X after Centro Leaks began publishing everything on Saturday afternoon. It reportedly contains source codes for previous games and codenames for the Switch 2 and the upcoming 10th generation Pokémon games. There are also hints of a Pokémon MMO, future films and a new anime series. The leak revealed tons of beta character designs and concept art.

– Mat Smith

Get this delivered straight to your inbox every day. Subscribe right here!

The biggest tech stories you missed

Moflin is an AI emotional support pet that thrives on cuddling.

Casio (famous for watches and calculators) is taking pre-orders in Japan for Moflin, the adorable robot plush toy with AI “emotional abilities” that debuted during CES 2021. This means Moflin, which was developed in collaboration with the Japanese startup Vanguard Industries, works like an emotional support pet – and is as fluffy as it looks.

Read on.

The attackers gained full control of the units.

Last week, robot vacuum cleaners across the country were hacked, allowing attackers not only to control the robovacs but also to hurl racial slurs and offensive comments through their speakers at anyone nearby. Specifically, it was the Ecovacs Deebot X2s, which has a reputation for being easy to hack. The company says it has developed a patch to fix the vulnerability – but it won't be available until November. Maybe October is a month when there is chaos throughout the house?

Read on.

23,000 Redboxes have to go!

Redbox is dead, but its cuboid corpses still lie in malls and stores across the country. The machines are heavy and unwieldy. A former Redbox manager said it would cost $500 to remove a kiosk. Note: Some machines are actually embedded in concrete. Some supporters have decided to adopt them anyway. Another note: These boxes use enormous amounts of energy. Walgreens told a judge that it costs the company $184,000 each month to operate 5,400 kiosks, which works out to about $35 a month for a single machine. That was fine a decade ago, when the company had annual sales of $2 billion.

Read on.