The leak happened just yesterday after a 4chan anonymous user somehow acquired an early copy of the game. Since then, the ROM has been passed around the internet and into the hands of various data miners, leading to a whole slew of leaked information ranging from plot points, to evolution lines, and the base stats of each Pokemon. Even the soundtrack has been released at this point.
Why Pokemon Moon in particular? Well according to Reddit user FocusForASecond, the ROM that was released was solely for Pokemon Moon, while the Pokemon Sun leak was nothing more than a troll attempt and more than likely just a preload from the eShop.
In that same thread, reddit user hownowbrowncow also added that the ROM is currently unusable for the average user. They explained as follows:
For those who don’t quite understand, the TL;DR is that chances are no one will be able to run the game on their own 3DS without serious modding and hacked firmware knowledge, so don’t bother. Unless your 3DS already has a firmware older than 11.0 then there’s no point.
If you really want to spoil the game for yourself, one of the go-to dataminers is YouTube user Kaphotic,s who has already released multiple videos surrounding both the Pokemon Sun and Moon Demo datamine. So far in the last 12 hours he has released multiple videos ranging from Alolan forms and new legendaries, to even the stats and moves of the starter Pokemon (video below).
While avoiding spoilers is an issue in of itself, one can only wonder how these leaks might affect sales of Pokemon Sun and Moon. ROMs have always been a point of ethical debate among gamers as some see it as a means of preserving older games, while others believe that ROM releases of newer games only serve to harm the companies. This case surely supports the latter, as a leak this early means plenty of homebrewed 3DS owners will now be playing the game for free.
It’s an unfortunate side effect of the online age, especially with all the ease of piracy nowadays. Hopefully those who have obtained illegal ROM copies of the game will still support it with a purchase. As for the rest of us non-modders, if you’re not a fan of spoilers it might be a good time to retreat into an anti-Pokemon news bunker until the dust settles on release day.
What do you think about the leaks? Do you think this will affect the sales of the upcoming Pokemon titles? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!
