Blurry Unconfirmed Pokémon Scarlet And Violet Leaks Divide Fandom Over Their Authenticity

If you don't want to get potentially spoiled about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, this is your warning. If you want to see the blurry possible leaks, read on.

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We're still about four months from the release of the latest entries in the main Pokémon series, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which means it's high time for "leak" season.

Last week, a significant amount of images purportedly from the video games appeared online. They supposedly show the games' gym leaders, the player character's rival and some evolutions for confirmed new Pokémon like Sprigatito and Lechonk. They also look terrible — as in the picture quality of the leaked images is literally terrible.

All gym leaders + 3 new Pokemon + your rival 😲😱

Don't forget to follow me 😉#ScarletViolet #PokemonScarletViolet #Pokemon RuffledRowlit</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/aDrive_tK?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">aDrive_tK HDvee</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/shistoplays?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">shistoplays @3clipse_tt pic.twitter.com/98iYhPncI0

— PokemonLEAKS  (@PKMNleak) July 11, 2022

More images of new Pokémon.

The first image is a new gimmick. pic.twitter.com/3raF2ZjZFU

— Centro LEAKS (@CentroLeaks) July 12, 2022

Potential details about the gameplay were also leaked online. Some of the more eye-catching features include the concept of Pokémon "time-traveling" in the game, that the gyms can be fought in any order but the teams within gyms don't scale to player level, and a new "crystalization" gimmick that may be to the games as Dynamaxing was to Sword and Shield.

Mr. K is reporting that Pokémon Gyms in Scarlet/Violet can be completed in any order. However, there seems to be no level scaling. This means Gyms are set to a static level and their team roster is static.

— PoryLeeks (@pory_leeks) July 14, 2022

Compilation of Kaka's leaks#Pokemon #ScarletViolet #PokemonScarletViolet pic.twitter.com/FMqn7TxwNb

— PokemonLEAKS  (@PKMNleak) July 15, 2022

The leaks, spread on Twitter through aggregation accounts like @PKMNLeaks and @CentroLeaks, apparently come from one mysterious figure in the community known as "Mr K." Mr. K, also known by several other names with "K" in them, is well-known to drop leaks on a Twitter account, alert leak aggregate accounts, then shut "his" account down before repeating the process with a new set of leaks.

Kotaku spoke with one of those aggregate accounts, Poryleeks, who suggested the poor image quality of the leaks may be because Mr. K does not want any potentially identifying information to make it through their leaks.

"The leaker put a filter on top of it because there [are] numbers on the screenshots," they said. "Probably code numbers for a build. He also seems scared of posting images."

The account also noted that Mr. K's grammar isn't the best, so it's possible some of their claims about the gameplay may be misinterpreted. Also, one can't necessarily take the leaks as fact since the game does not release for another four months, and there is plenty of time for things to be adjusted between now and the time the game is ready to launch.

What this leaves Pokémon fans with is a bunch of plausible but almost impossible-to-confirm information about the upcoming games. Faced with this sort of speculation, many Pokémon fans simply made fan art about the leaks and joked about their poor image quality.

pokemon scarlet and violet leaks pic.twitter.com/NSXbE8IVuD

— orion (@orionbutfluffy) July 14, 2022

Yo official art just dropped….. jk it was just me XD just finish this master piece! pic.twitter.com/cIdTrq4OYa

— Subarashii (@MadZygardeCore) July 11, 2022

Why does every Pokémon “leak” look like this: pic.twitter.com/Wfnxbtl3mV

— Ultima | #вʟм (@UltimaShadowX) July 12, 2022

It will be four months (or a new trailer) before we can validate whether any of the information leaked by "Mr K" is true. Until then, we can rest assured that no matter what the case may be, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will have much higher fidelity than their photos indicate.