The Pokémon Company settled its lawsuit with two Pokémon Sword and Shield strategy guide onto Discord on November 1, 2019, however, the official strategy guide was not released until November 22.
Pokémon Sword and Shield was developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo. Sword and Shield introduced over 80 new Pokémon and 13 regional forms of Pokémon that already existed. The story is very similar to all Pokémon games, be the best and catch them all. In this game, the player travels to the Galar region to take part in the Gym Challenge to become the best trainer in the region. The games introduced a new Wild Area, an open-world space that allows free camera movement and has co-op raid battles.
Because of the leaks, a lawsuit was filed in November 2019 and it was settled this past Tuesday (via Leaving things for players to discover on their own is a good thing, even though some fans felt this leak was evidence of the confirmation that some favorite components, like a national Pokédex, would not be included.
Although these two leakers were the targets of the lawsuit, this was not the only leak that Nintendo and The Pokémon Company endured; there were leaks prior to and after these specific leaks. A video of the beta version of Sword and Shield leaked prior to release and a Portuguese website published a series of various leaks as well. Nintendo has since blacklisted the Portuguese site. Additionally, at the end of 2020, there was a leak that said a DLC expansion was on the way but that was proven untrue as its expected release day came and went without any new content. Now, fans aren't sure there will be any more DLC for Sword and Shield, especially since there are already two.
The Pokémon Company and Nintendo are not the first to have experienced hacks that have had a negative effect on the community. Pokémon has been around and beloved for over two decades. With over 800 Pokémon in existence now, the franchise isn't going to slow. What the hackers did was wrong, and they are paying for it. It won't change the outcome of their actions, but hopefully, the leakers having to pay The Pokémon Company $150,000 as a settlement will dissuade future hackers and leakers. Only time will tell if there is a lasting change.
Source: Polygon