Pokemon Scarlet & Violet ‘leaks’ have been all over Twitter and Instagram this month, from sources that can be described as dubious at best. While players clamor for any details about the next mainline Pokemon games, industrious artists and clever trolls have capitalized on the excitement for clicks and clout. While we don’t yet know which leaks are real, if any, it seems likely that some amount of accurate info about Scarlet & Violet will eventually leak - at least if history is any indication. One possible, and very likely, source of leaks is actually another Pokemon game. Mobile and Switch MOBA Pokemon Unite is a notoriously leaky game, and if there are any details about Scarlet & Violet Pokemon to be found, you can rest assured the dataminers will find them.
If you follow Pokemon Unite, you’ve probably noticed how hard it is for developer TiMi Studio Group to keep any secrets about the game. Every time the game receives an update, dataminers quickly get to work digging through the files to find hints about unreleased content and upcoming Pokemon. More often than not, they manage to find a lot. Over the last few months, both Aegislash and Azumarill were discovered in completely playable states weeks before they were officially added to the game. Aegislash was discovered the same day Trevenant released and was fully playable before most people even got their hands on Trevenant for a single game.
Other times, dataminers will find lists of Pokemon names in the files that indicate their either coming soon as playable fighters, may appear as wild Pokemon during events, or are in a stage of development and may or may not show up in the game at some point. With yesterday’s update, Espeon and Delphox were datamined as the next two characters, with Buzzwole and Glaceon potentially following them over the next few months.
There are still surprises on rare occasions. Nobody knew Hoopa was coming until the day it became playable, and Duraludon was announced quite a while before release, during Pokemon Day in February, so it was able to avoid getting leaked. But by and large, Pokemon Unite leaks are frequent and, most importantly, accurate.
Obviously, Pokemon Unite will eventually receive new Pokemon from Scarlet & Violet. The best way to bring attention to Unite, especially more than a year after launch, is to feature the exciting new Pokemon everyone is talking about. I’d put a considerable amount of money on Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and/or Quaxley are coming to Unite sooner rather than later.
With that in mind, it’s easy to see how things could start leaking out of the Unite API any day now. Whether it’s fully playable characters or just a list of names, there’s a real possibility that we find out about some new Pokemon from a dataminer like @ElChicoEevee before The Pokemon Company officially announces them. We don’t yet know the names of the final evolutions for the three starters, but if they’re going to appear in Unite, they’ll only be referred to by their final evolution. Scarlet & Violet Pokemon could even appear as non-playable wild Pokemon in Quick Battles or a new version of Remoat Stadium.
We don’t know how long it will take before Scarlet & Violet Pokemon start showing up in Unite. We still haven’t seen a single Pokemon from Legends: Arceus in either the game or in leaks, so there’s still a chance The Pokemon Company will be able to keep a lid on things. Still, when the Scarlet & Violet leaks start coming, just like they always do, Pokemon Unite datamines will be the first place I look for information.